Joe Biden is the 46th and current president of the United States. Prior to his successful campaign for the presidency, Biden had served as a United States Senator for the state of Delaware. He was also the vice-president under Barack Obama.
As a senator, Joe Biden was known for lengthy, often rambling speeches. He is also notorious for his ability to make noticeable gaffes during many of these speeches, which is something Biden has acknowledged in the past. Biden has referred to himself as a gaffe machine, particularly when the press points out his mistake.
Altogether, Biden has been in service to the United States for 48 years. He was elected to his Senate seat at the age of 29. Today, Biden is 79 years old, making him the eldest serving president.
| Celebrated Name: | Joe Biden |
| Real Name/Full Name: | Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. |
| Gender: | Male |
| Age: | 79 |
| Birthdate: | November 20, 1942 |
| Birthplace: | Scranton, PA |
| Nationality: | American |
| Height: | 6 ft. 0 in. |
| Weight: | 178 lb. |
| Sexual Orientation: | Straight |
| Marital Status: | Married |
| Wife/Spouse | Neilia (nee’ Hunter) (1966-1972) Jill Tracy (nee’ Jacobs) (1977 – present) |
| Children/Kids: | (Two Sons, Two Daughters) Beau (deceased – cancer), Naomi (deceased – car accident), Hunter, and Ashley |
| Dating/Girlfriend Name: | N/A |
| Is Joe Biden Gay? | No |
| Highest Political Office: | President of the United States |
| Profession: | Politician |
| Colleges Attended: | University of Delaware; Syracuse University College of Law |
| Degrees: | Bachelor of Arts in history and political science (U. of Del.); law degree |
| Salary: | $400,000 as President |
| Net Worth in 2021: | $9 million (Forbes estimate) |
Biography: Early Life and Family
Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. was born in Scranton, PA on November 20, 1942. He was the son of Joseph, Sr. and Catherine Eugenia Finnegan. Biden is the oldest of four children. He was raised in a devout Catholic family.
Biden’s parents moved from Scranton to Delaware due to his father’s inability to find profitable work. Biden Sr. dealt with tough bosses as well as some unscrupulous business partners. When the family moved to Delaware, Biden Sr. worked as a car salesman.
During his younger years, Joe Biden struggled with a pronounced stutter. His classmates often referred to him as either “Dash” (referring to his stutter and its resemblance to Morse code) or “Bye-Bye” (referring to the way his stumbled over pronouncing his last name.
Biden actually excelled at sports; he played football and is reported to have been fairly talented. His grades, however, were somewhat lacking. During his early years, he attended a number of Catholic schools, including the elite Archmere Academy.
Biden is a graduate of the University of Delaware, where he declared a double major (history and political science) in 1965. He earned a law degree from Syracuse University in 1968.
Personal Life
Joe Biden has been married twice and is the father of four children. In 1966, while attending law school at Syracuse University, Joe wed Neilia Hunter on August 27, 1966. It is said that when Joe met Neilia’s mother, Mrs. Hunter inquired as to what Joe aspired to be; he supposedly replied that he wanted to be president of the United States.
Joe’s eldest son was born on February 3, 1969. His second son, Hunter, was born February 4, 1970. His daughter, Naomi, was born on November 8, 1971.
On December 18, 1972, Neilia and her children were traveling near home when the station wagon they were in was struck by a tractor-trailer. Sons Beau and Hunter were seriously injured in the crash, but they survived. Neilia Biden and their infant daughter died as a result of their injuries en route to a local medical facility.
At the time, Joe was known to commute via train from Delaware to Washington, D.C. Shortly before the accident, Biden had been elected to the Senate and had been sworn into office. He would commute in this manner for a number of years.
Some years later, in 1977, Joe would wed a second time. Jill Jacobs Stevenson was a schoolteacher. Biden is said to have met her on a blind date. Together, they have one daughter, Ashley Biden. She was born on June 8, 1981.
Age, Height and Weight
Joe Biden is currently the oldest president to take office; he is 79 years old. He is six foot zero inches in height, and he weighs 178 pounds.
Net Worth
Joe Biden earns $400,000 per year as president. When he began his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden submitted his financial information. Among these documents were his state and federal tax returns from the years 2016 – 2018. Using this information, Forbes magazine estimated that Biden has a net worth of $9 million.
Beginning in 1973, Biden’s salary as a Senator was $42,500. His salary increased up to $174,000 the last year he served (2008). As Vice-President, Biden earned approximately $230,000 per year.
During the time between then end of Biden’s tenure as VP and his inauguration in 2021, Biden earned a great deal of money via speaking engagements and in book deals. In 2009, Biden’s net worth was reported to be less than $30,000. However, according to the financial disclosures Biden and his wife Jill provided, in July 2019, that in 2017 and 2018 alone, the Bidens earned more than $15 million.
According to the Associated Press, Biden’s initial speaking fee was $100,000 per event. However, over time, Biden charged anywhere from $40,000 to $190,000 per event. Financial disclosures have also shown that Biden eared $450,000 as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
Also to be considered as a part of Biden’s income is real estate. The Bidens own two homes in Delaware, which are worth a total of $4 million. The Bidens also own a$1 million federal pension as well as “cash and investments worth another $4 million or so,” according to Forbes.
It is noteworthy that the Bidens, in addition to the Presidential salary of $400,000 per year, are allowed $50,000 in expense allowance. This is “to assist in defraying expenses relating to or resulting from the discharge of his official duties.”
Dr. Jill Biden continues to teach at a community college.
Biden’s Political Career
Outside of politics, Joe Biden has done little in the public sector. He was elected to his position as a Senator representing the state of Delaware at the age of 29. He spent four years after his 1968 graduation from Syracuse University School of Law working as an attorney. He won a position on the New Castle County Council in 1970. Two years later, he would successfully run for a Senate seat in Delaware. He has chiefly worked in politics since that time.
Joe’s political career spans forty-eight years. That includes his time as a Senator and as the Vice-President under Barack Obama.
During his thirty-six years in the Senate, Biden served on the Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee.
Biden also headed confirmation hearings, including those for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. Both Bork and Thomas were nominees for the United States Supreme Court. Ultimately, Bork was rejected, but, Clarence Thomas – who still serves today – was confirmed to the position.
Biden’s career has notable highlights as well as some more controversial issues. Biden was touted for supporting and preserving Delaware’s favorable corporate climate, legislating for tougher penalties for domestic violence, and an anti-crime bill. The bill provided for more police officers across the country as well as tougher penalties for drug charges.
At the same time, Biden’s anti-crime bill has become a point of contention. Opponents state that the bill has had an effect of sending more minorities to jail for longer terms. Biden is also known for his opposition of integrated busing for minority students. Biden is also known a 1977 comment regarding this policy, stating “without “orderly integration,” his children would grow up in “racial jungle, with tensions built so high that it is going to explode at some point.”
Biden has been hailed for his foreign diplomacy accomplishments. It is notable that Biden called then Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic “a war criminal” to his face while on a 1993 visit to Belgrade. He initially voted to authorize the war in Iraq, but, after some time, he verbally disagreed with Bush’s War on Terror.
Biden’s Multiple Bids for the Presidency
Joe Biden actually ran several times for the position of President of the United States. He often dropped his bid for the position during the primaries. He initially ran in 1987. While on the campaign trail, Biden was found paraphrasing British Labor politician Neil Kinnock. At most of his campaign speeches, he gave credit to Kinnock. However, at the Iowa State Fair, he stated that he was the first in his family to go to college and that his family was one heavily involved in the coal mining industry. These were facts from Kinnock’s life, not Biden’s. Evidence came to light that this was not the first time Biden had “borrowed” from the speeches of other political heavyweights, such as Robert F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.
Once this came to light (some accused Biden of “plagiarism”) Biden dropped out of the race in September. Around that time, the Bork confirmation hearing was taking place. Biden cited a need to focus on the Bork hearings as his motivation for leaving the race.
In February 1988, Biden had to take a seven-month leave from the Senate due to a brain aneurysm.
Biden was originally running against Obama in the 2008 primaries. However, a less-than-stellar performance in the Iowa Caucases (less than one percent of the vote) led Biden to once more drop a presidential bid. Obama would then later choose him as his running mate. Biden was the vice president from 2009 to 2016.
Political experts believe that Biden’s moderate position is what propelled him to run a successful presidential campaign in 2020.
He was inaugurated on Wednesday, January 20, 2021.
Awards and Achievements
Biden was the 47th Vice-President of the United States. During that time, he was charged with drafting and overseeing a $787 billion stimulus package, reviving an arms reduction treaty with Russia, and playing an advisory role in the Iraqi and Afghanistan conflicts.
Biden declined to run for the presidency in 2016 due to the death of his eldest son Beau in 2015.
Biden’s 2020 Presidential Run
Twenty-eight Democratic candidates began the presidential run in 2020. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were among those running alongside Joe Biden. Biden ran on a platform that emphasized his working-class background.
The South Carolina primary was a Biden victory; he decided at that point to stay in the race. He also captured the majority of delegates in Super Tuesday voting in March 2020.
On August 11, 2020, Biden announced he would choose Kamala Harris, a Senator from California (and a 2020 presidential candidate herself). This was historic as Harris, should Biden win the presidency, would not only be the first female Vice-President, but the first African-American female to hold the position.
COVID-19 had a remarkable effect on the way voting took place in the 2020 presidential election. Many votes were mailed in; there was wide-spread talk of voter fraud as some anecdotal evidence held that people were being mailed unsolicited ballots or the same ballots were mailed to those no longer living.
However, many states allowed for early voting, and this may have had some effect on the outcome of the campaign as well. Americans were not given the winner of the 2020 presidential bid until November 7,2020 due to the volume of mail-in and early ballots that added to the time needed to count votes. Joe Biden secured 306 Electoral votes to Donald Trump’s 232, securing his bid for the Presidency. In total nationwide, 81,283,098 votes (51.3%) were cast for Joe Biden in comparison to 74,222,958 (46.8%) for Donald Trump.
By January 7, Congress had accepted the Electoral College delegates and Biden was named the 46th president of the United States.
