Happy Birthday President Biden
President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born on November 20, 1942, making today his 81st birthday. He is the first octogenarian US President. He was inaugurated as the 46th President on January 20, 2021 making him the nation's oldest president at the time of taking office. Previously Biden served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 under President Barack Obama, and prior to that, from 1973 to 2009, he served seven terms as a United States senator for Delaware.
Biden was born on November 20, 1942, at St. Mary's Hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania. His mother was Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Biden (née Finnegan) and his father was Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. The President-Elect was the oldest child in a Catholic family. He has a sister, Valerie, and two brothers, Francis and James. His mother Jean was of Irish descent and his father Joseph Sr. had English, French, and Irish ancestry. Biden was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, until 1953 when the family moved to Delaware, Biden studied at the University of Delaware before earning his law degree from Syracuse University in 1968.
Biden experienced personal tragedy in his life on December 18, 1972, a few weeks after his election to the senate, when his wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping in Hockessin, Delaware. Neilia's station wagon was hit by a semi-trailer truck as she pulled out from an intersection. Their sons Beau (aged 3) and Hunter (aged 2) survived the accident and were taken to the hospital in fair condition, Beau with a broken leg and other wounds and Hunter with a minor skull fracture and other head injuries.
Just a few years earlier, Biden got his start in elected politics when he was elected a New Castle County Councillor in 1970. He became the sixth-youngest senator in American history when he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1972, at the age of 29. As a Senator Biden was a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and eventually its chairman. He opposed the Gulf War in 1991 and supported expanding the NATO alliance into Eastern Europe and its intervention in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Eleven years later he supported the resolution authorizing the Iraq War in 2002, but he later opposed the surge of U.S. troops in 2007. Biden also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995 and he was a leader in bringing about the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act. As Chairman he oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.
Biden ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and again, twenty years later in 2008. He was reelected to the Senate six times, and was the fourth-most senior senator at the time of his resignation when he left the Senate to serve as Barack Obama's vice president. Obama and Biden were reelected in 2012.
As vice president, Biden was assigned the task of managing the White House role in infrastructure spending in 2009 in response to the Great Recession. He participated in negotiations with congressional Republicans that helped pass legislation including the 2010 Tax Relief Act, which resolved a taxation deadlock. He was also central to the negotiations leading to the Budget Control Act of 2011, which resolved a debt ceiling crisis; and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which addressed the impending "fiscal cliff". Biden also led efforts to pass the United States-Russia New START treaty, and he supported military intervention in Libya. He was also involved in helping to design U.S. policy toward Iraq concerning the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he also led the Gun Violence Task Force.
Just prior to the end of his term as Vice-President, in January 2017, Obama awarded Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction.
In April 2019, Biden announced his candidacy in the 2020 presidential election. Initially it appeared that his campaign would be unsuccessful following poor showings in the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary. But a primary victory in South Carolina gave momentum to his candidacy, leading to a string of victories in subsequent primaries, and he reached the delegate threshold needed to secure the Democratic nomination in June 2020. On August 11, he announced his choice of U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate. Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump in the November 3, 2020 election, winning the electoral college. Final results reported Biden winning 306 electoral votes and 232 for Trump, and Biden with 51.3% of the popular vote (81,268,924) and Trump with 46.9% (74,216,154). Biden received the largest number of votes for any US President in history thus far.
Rioting at the US Capitol marred the counting of ballots certifying Biden's victory, but the count was completed and Biden's tenure as the 46th president began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden entered office amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic crisis, and vicious political polarization. He began his presidency with a spate of executive orders undoing much of his predecessor's work. On the first day of his presidency, Biden restored U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement and revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. He also halted funding for President Trump's border wall, an expansion of the Mexican border wall. On his second day in office, he issued a series of executive orders to reduce the impact of COVID-19, including invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950, and set an early goal of achieving one hundred million COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States in his first 100 days.
Biden ordered retaliatory airstrikes against Syrian buildings used by Iranian militias to stage rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq. On March 11, 2021, he signed his first major bill into law-the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021-a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. Earlier this week, on November 15, 2021, he signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. He has also proposed investments known as the Build Back Better Plan.
Biden's decision to remove US troops from Afghanistan and its subsequent negative effect on Afghanis who had supported US involvement in the region appears to have hurt Biden's popularity overall, along with concerns over his record deficit spending. Very early in Biden's presidency, opinion polls found that Biden's approval ratings were steadier than Trump's, with an average approval rating of 55% and an average disapproval rate of 39%. Biden's early approval ratings were more polarized than Trump's, with 98% of Democrats, 61% of independents and 11% of Republicans approving of Biden's presidency in February 2021, a party gap of 87%. Around the end of his first hundred days in office, Biden's approval rating was higher than Trump's but was the third worst since the presidency of Harry Truman. After the fall of Kabul and the surge of COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant in July and August 2021, Biden's approval rating began to decline somewhat steadily, from a high of 52.7% approval on July 26, 2021 to 45.9% approval by September 3, 2021, according to FiveThirtyEight.com. He responded to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing foreign aid and weapons shipments to Ukraine. But despite an apparent drop in popularity, his party did not fare as poorly as expected in the mid-term elections in 2022, losing control of the House (but not by as large a majority as predicted by most) and retaining control of the Senate.
Biden is expected to seek re-election in 2024. His opponent in 2020 has already announced his intention to seek a return to the White House.
Biden was born on November 20, 1942, at St. Mary's Hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania. His mother was Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Biden (née Finnegan) and his father was Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. The President-Elect was the oldest child in a Catholic family. He has a sister, Valerie, and two brothers, Francis and James. His mother Jean was of Irish descent and his father Joseph Sr. had English, French, and Irish ancestry. Biden was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, until 1953 when the family moved to Delaware, Biden studied at the University of Delaware before earning his law degree from Syracuse University in 1968.
Biden experienced personal tragedy in his life on December 18, 1972, a few weeks after his election to the senate, when his wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping in Hockessin, Delaware. Neilia's station wagon was hit by a semi-trailer truck as she pulled out from an intersection. Their sons Beau (aged 3) and Hunter (aged 2) survived the accident and were taken to the hospital in fair condition, Beau with a broken leg and other wounds and Hunter with a minor skull fracture and other head injuries.
Just a few years earlier, Biden got his start in elected politics when he was elected a New Castle County Councillor in 1970. He became the sixth-youngest senator in American history when he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1972, at the age of 29. As a Senator Biden was a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and eventually its chairman. He opposed the Gulf War in 1991 and supported expanding the NATO alliance into Eastern Europe and its intervention in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Eleven years later he supported the resolution authorizing the Iraq War in 2002, but he later opposed the surge of U.S. troops in 2007. Biden also chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995 and he was a leader in bringing about the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act. As Chairman he oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.
Biden ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and again, twenty years later in 2008. He was reelected to the Senate six times, and was the fourth-most senior senator at the time of his resignation when he left the Senate to serve as Barack Obama's vice president. Obama and Biden were reelected in 2012.
As vice president, Biden was assigned the task of managing the White House role in infrastructure spending in 2009 in response to the Great Recession. He participated in negotiations with congressional Republicans that helped pass legislation including the 2010 Tax Relief Act, which resolved a taxation deadlock. He was also central to the negotiations leading to the Budget Control Act of 2011, which resolved a debt ceiling crisis; and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which addressed the impending "fiscal cliff". Biden also led efforts to pass the United States-Russia New START treaty, and he supported military intervention in Libya. He was also involved in helping to design U.S. policy toward Iraq concerning the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011. After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he also led the Gun Violence Task Force.
Just prior to the end of his term as Vice-President, in January 2017, Obama awarded Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction.
In April 2019, Biden announced his candidacy in the 2020 presidential election. Initially it appeared that his campaign would be unsuccessful following poor showings in the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary. But a primary victory in South Carolina gave momentum to his candidacy, leading to a string of victories in subsequent primaries, and he reached the delegate threshold needed to secure the Democratic nomination in June 2020. On August 11, he announced his choice of U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate. Biden defeated incumbent President Donald Trump in the November 3, 2020 election, winning the electoral college. Final results reported Biden winning 306 electoral votes and 232 for Trump, and Biden with 51.3% of the popular vote (81,268,924) and Trump with 46.9% (74,216,154). Biden received the largest number of votes for any US President in history thus far.
Rioting at the US Capitol marred the counting of ballots certifying Biden's victory, but the count was completed and Biden's tenure as the 46th president began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden entered office amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic crisis, and vicious political polarization. He began his presidency with a spate of executive orders undoing much of his predecessor's work. On the first day of his presidency, Biden restored U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement and revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. He also halted funding for President Trump's border wall, an expansion of the Mexican border wall. On his second day in office, he issued a series of executive orders to reduce the impact of COVID-19, including invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950, and set an early goal of achieving one hundred million COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States in his first 100 days.
Biden ordered retaliatory airstrikes against Syrian buildings used by Iranian militias to stage rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq. On March 11, 2021, he signed his first major bill into law-the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021-a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill. Earlier this week, on November 15, 2021, he signed the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. He has also proposed investments known as the Build Back Better Plan.
Biden's decision to remove US troops from Afghanistan and its subsequent negative effect on Afghanis who had supported US involvement in the region appears to have hurt Biden's popularity overall, along with concerns over his record deficit spending. Very early in Biden's presidency, opinion polls found that Biden's approval ratings were steadier than Trump's, with an average approval rating of 55% and an average disapproval rate of 39%. Biden's early approval ratings were more polarized than Trump's, with 98% of Democrats, 61% of independents and 11% of Republicans approving of Biden's presidency in February 2021, a party gap of 87%. Around the end of his first hundred days in office, Biden's approval rating was higher than Trump's but was the third worst since the presidency of Harry Truman. After the fall of Kabul and the surge of COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant in July and August 2021, Biden's approval rating began to decline somewhat steadily, from a high of 52.7% approval on July 26, 2021 to 45.9% approval by September 3, 2021, according to FiveThirtyEight.com. He responded to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing foreign aid and weapons shipments to Ukraine. But despite an apparent drop in popularity, his party did not fare as poorly as expected in the mid-term elections in 2022, losing control of the House (but not by as large a majority as predicted by most) and retaining control of the Senate.
Biden is expected to seek re-election in 2024. His opponent in 2020 has already announced his intention to seek a return to the White House.