Joseph Biden served as the 46th President of the United States, starting in 2021. He represented Delaware for 36 years in the U.S. Senate before becoming the 47th Vice President.
Early Life
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born on November 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. His parents were Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. and Catherine Eugina “Jean” Finnegan Biden. His father was employed cleaning furnaces and as a used car sales associate. His family moved to Mayfield, Delaware when he was 13 years old. He struggled with a stutter that he eventually learned to control by himself.
Biden studied political science and history at the University of Delaware. He then graduated from the Syracuse University Law School in 1968.
Early Career
Biden briefly worked as an attorney before venturing into politics. In 1972, he was elected to the U.S. Senate at the age of 29, the fifth youngest Senator in history. He became Delaware’s longest serving senator from 1973 to 2009, winning reelection six times. During those years, he served as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was an adjunct professor at Widener University School of Law from 1991 until 2008.
Though his 2008 presidential campaign never gained momentum, Obama selected Biden as his vice-presidential running mate. On January 20, 2009, Biden became the 47th Vice President, serving two terms from 2009 to 2017.
Presidency
In 2020, Biden selected Kamala Harris, a California Senator as his running mate. They defeated the incumbent Donald Trump. During his first hundred days in office, Biden signed a flurry of executive orders rescinding policies of the Trump administration, particularly in the areas of immigration, health care, and the environment.
He overturned the ban that targeted travelers from Muslim majority countries, pulled funding from construction of a wall along the U.S./Mexican border, allowed transgender people to serve again in the military, and revoked the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline. Biden issued executive orders recommitting the United States to the Paris Agreement and canceled the country’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization.
Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act in response to the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He worked to repair relations with U.S. allies. He removed all remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan, ending nearly 20 years of U.S. military involvement in the country. He responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorized civilian and military aid to Ukraine. In response to the Israel-Hamas war, Biden condemned the actions of Hamas and announced military support for Israel.
