Joe Biden

46th President of the United States

### Children

Beau Biden (son)Hunter Biden (son) Ashley Biden (daughter) Naomi Christina Biden (daughter)

### Parents

Joe Biden Sr. (father)Catherine Biden (mother)

### Siblings

Valarie Biden Owens (sister)Francis Biden (brother) James Biden (brother)

### Hair Color

White

**Joe Biden** serves as the 46th and incumbent President of the United States (2021-present). Biden represented Delaware for 36 years in the U.S. Senate before becoming the 47th Vice President of the United States under Barack Obama.

*The Presidency of Joe Biden spans the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Modern Era and the end of the War on Terror. President Joe Biden represents the Democratic political party which influences the domestic and foreign policies of his presidency.*

## Biography

At age 29, President Biden became one of the youngest people ever elected to the United States Senate. Just weeks after his Senate election, tragedy struck the Biden family when his wife Neilia and daughter Naomi were killed, and sons Hunter and Beau were critically injured, in an auto accident. Biden was sworn into the U.S. Senate at his sons’ hospital bedsides and began commuting from Wilmington to Washington every day, first by car, and then by train, in order to be with his family. He would continue to do so throughout his time in the Senate. Biden married Jill Jacobs in 1977, and in 1980, their family was complete with the birth of Ashley Blazer Biden. A lifelong educator, Jill earned her doctorate in education and returned to teaching as an English professor at a community college in Virginia.

As a Senator from Delaware for 36 years, President Biden established himself as a leader in facing some of our nation’s most important domestic and international challenges. As Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 16 years, Biden is widely recognized for his work writing and spearheading the Violence Against Women Act  — the landmark legislation that strengthens penalties for violence against women, creates unprecedented resources for survivors of assault, and changes the national dialogue on domestic and sexual assault.

As Vice President, Biden continued his leadership on important issues facing the nation and represented our country abroad. Vice President Biden convened sessions of the President’s Cabinet, led interagency efforts, and worked with Congress in his fight to raise the living standards of middle-class Americans, reduce gun violence, address violence against women, and end cancer as we know it.

Biden helped President Obama pass and then oversaw the implementation of the Recovery Act — the biggest economic recovery plan in the history of the nation and our biggest and strongest commitment to clean energy. The President’s plan prevented another Great Depression, created and saved millions of jobs, and led to 75 uninterrupted months of job growth by the end of the administration. And Biden did it all with less than 1% in waste, abuse, or fraud — the most efficient government program in our country’s history. He served as the point person for U.S. diplomacy throughout the Western Hemisphere, strengthened relationships with our allies both in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, and led the effort to bring 150,000 troops home from Iraq.

In a ceremony at the White House, President Obama awarded Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction — the nation’s highest civilian honor. After leaving the White House, the Bidens continued their efforts to expand opportunity for every American with the creation of the Biden Foundation, the Biden Cancer Initiative, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, and the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware. On April 25, 2019, Biden announced his candidacy for President of the United States. Biden’s candidacy was built from the beginning around 3 pillars: the battle for the soul of our nation, the need to rebuild our middle class — the backbone of our country, and a call for unity, to act as One America. It was a message that would only gain more resonance in 2020 as we confront a pandemic, an economic crisis, urgent calls for racial justice, and the existential threat of climate change.

In 2021, he signed a bipartisan infrastructure bill, as well as a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession. Biden proposed the Build Back Better Act, which failed in Congress, but aspects of which were incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law in 2022. Biden also signed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which focused on manufacturing, appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court and worked with congressional Republicans to prevent a first ever national default by negotiating a deal to raise the debt ceiling. In foreign policy, Biden restored America's membership in the Paris Agreement. He oversaw the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan that ended the war in Afghanistan, during which the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized control. Biden has responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing civilian and military aid to Ukraine. When Isarael was attacked by Hamas, Biden declared his support for the country.

## Personailty

Joe Biden has a very warm and soft personality. Being the oldest person to assume office at age 78, Biden's age has often come to discussion on whether he is fit to serve the presidency which he has rebuked many times.

## Nickname

* "Joe"
* "Scranton Joe"
* "Sleepy Joe"
* "Brandon, or Joe Brandon, and derivatives such as Dark Brandon"

*Meaning: The nickname Joe is short for his first name Joseph. "Scranton Joe" comes from his birthplace Scranton, Pennsylvania. "Sleepy Joe is a pejorative nickname used by opponent Donald Trump and his supporters, most prominently in the 2020 United States presidential election, to attack Biden as 'mentally slow'. Brandon is based on the anti-Biden political slogan "Let's Go Brandon".*

## Inauguration (?)

The **Inauguration of Joe Biden** as the 46th president of the United States took place on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, marking the start of the four-year term of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president. The 59th presidential inauguration took place on the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Biden took the presidential oath of office, before which Harris took the vice presidential oath of office.

The inauguration took place amidst extraordinary political, public health, economic, and national security crises, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; outgoing President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, which provoked an attack on the United States Capitol on January 6; Trump's second impeachment; and a threat of widespread civil unrest, which stimulated a nationwide law enforcement response. Festivities were sharply curtailed by efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and mitigate the potential for violence near the Capitol. The live audience was limited; members of the Congress attended with one guest of their choosing, resembling a State of the Union address. Public health measures such as mandatory face coverings, testing, temperature checks, and social distancing were used to protect participants in the ceremony. "America United" and "Our Determined Democracy: Forging a More Perfect Union"—a reference to the Preamble to the United States Constitution—served as the inaugural themes.

## Famous Films

* Everything Everywhere all at Once
* The Whale (2022)
* Elvis (2022)
* Oppenheimer (2023)
* Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
* Avatar: The Way of Water
* Godzilla: Minus One
* Killer of Flower Moon
* King Richards
* Nope (2022)
* Top Gun: Maverick
* Barbie (2023)
* Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One
* Spider-Man: No Way Home
* Black Widow (2021)
* Shang-Chi: and the Legend of the Ten Rings
* Eternals
* Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
* Thor: Love and Thunder
* Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
* Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
* Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
* The Marvels
* Free Guy
* Creed III
* The Harder They Fall
* West Side Story (2021)
* Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
* Jurassic World: Dominion
* The Batman (2022)
* The Suicide Squad
* Black Adam
* Shazam: Fury of the Gods
* The Flash
* Blue Beetle
* Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
* Venom: Let there be Carnage
* Zack Snyder's Justice League
* Ghostbusters Afterlife
* Red Notice
* Cherry (2022)
* Morbius
* The Menu
* Raya and the Last Dragon
* Babylon (2022)
* The Super Mario Bros. Movie
* Turning Red
* Luca
* Encanto
* Lightyear
* The Creator
* Uncharted (2022)
* Death of on the Nile (2022)

## Accomplishment and Major Events

**The Afghanistan War (2001 - 2021)**

Summary: The Afghanistan War (2001 - 2021) in which the United States of America invaded Afghanistan was triggered by the September 11 attacks. On October 7, 2001 the United States and Britain began to bomb terrorist targets, such as the Al-Qaeda camps and the military forces of the Taliban. The war continued at the beginning of Biden's presidency.

**American Rescue Plan Act of 2021**

A $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that temporarily established expanded unemployment insurance and sent $1,400 stimulus checks to most Americans in response to continued economic pressure from COVID-19.

**Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act**

A ten-year plan brokered by Biden alongside Democrats and Republicans in Congress, to invest in American roads, bridges, public transit, ports and broadband access.

**CHIPS and Science Act**

Bolstered the semiconductor and manufacturing industry, the Honoring our PACT Act, expanding healthcare for US veterans, and the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act.

**Withdraw from Afghanistan**

The United States Armed Forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021, marking the end of the 2001–2021 war. The Taliban began a final offensive on 1 May and, on 8 July, Biden specified a new completion date of 31 August. There were about 650 US troops in Afghanistan in early August 2021, tasked with protecting Hamid Karzai International Airport and the US embassy in Kabul. NATO's Resolute Support Mission concluded on 12 July 2021 while US intelligence assessments estimated as late as July that Kabul would fall within months or weeks following withdrawal of all American forces from Afghanistan, though the security situation deteriorated rapidly. On 15 August, with the fall of Kabul, another 1,000 troops were deployed, and on 16 August, another 1,000 troops were deployed, bringing the total number of troops to 7,000. The last US military planes left Kabul airport at 11:59 p.m. Kabul time on 30 August 2021.

With the major wars over and only low-level combat operations in some places, end of the war in Afghanistan in August 2021 symbolizes the visible ending of the War on Terror or at least its main phase, for many in the West.

**Russia Invasion of Ukraine**

On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that had begun in 2014. The invasion is the biggest attack on a European country since the Second World War. It is estimated to have caused tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of military casualties. By April 2023, about 8 million Ukrainians had been internally displaced. More than 8.2 million had fled the country by May 2023, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. Extensive environmental damage caused by the war contributed to food crises worldwide.

**Ketanji Brown Jackson Supreme Court nomination**

On February 25, 2022, President Joe Biden announced that he would nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson to the position of associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to fill the vacancy by Stephen Breyer, who announced his retirement on January 27, 2022, at the age of 83. Jackson, a former law clerk of Breyer, was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, having been appointed by Biden in 2021. Jackson is the first Black woman in U.S. history to be nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Her nomination was sent to the Senate on February 28, and her confirmation hearings were held by the Senate Judiciary Committee from March 21 to 24, 2022. The Senate confirmed her on April 7, 2022, by a 53 to 47 vote. She took the oath of office on June 30, 2022.

**Respect Marriage Act**

Repealed the Defense of Marriage Act and codified same-sex and interracial marriage in the United States.

**2022 Buffalo shooting**

On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred  in Buffalo, New York, United States, at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten people, all of whom were black, were murdered and three were injured. The shooter, identified as 18-year-old Payton S. Gendron, livestreamed part of the attack on Twitch, but the livestream was shut down by the service in under two minutes. Gendron was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder. He formally entered a plea of "not guilty" on May 19, 2022. On November 28, 2022, Gendron pleaded guilty to all state charges in the shooting, including murder, domestic terrorism, and hate crimes. On February 15, 2023, Gendron was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole; as of that date, federal charges are still ongoing.

**Robb Elementary School shooting**

The Robb Elementary School shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas, United States, when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a former student at the school, fatally shot 19 students and two teachers, while 17 others were injured but survived. After shooting and severely wounding his grandmother at their home earlier that day, Ramos drove to and entered the school, remaining in an adjoining classroom for more than an hour before members of the United States Border Patrol Tactical Unit fatally shot him after bypassing numerous local and state officers who had been in the school's hallways for over an hour.

Police officers waited more than 1 hour and 14 minutes on-site before breaching the classroom to engage the shooter. Police also cordoned off the school grounds, resulting in violent conflicts between police and civilians, including parents, who were attempting to enter the school to rescue children. As a consequence, law enforcement officials in Uvalde have been heavily criticized for their response to the shooting, and their conduct is being reviewed in separate investigations by the Texas Ranger Division and the United States Department of Justice. Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officials laid much of the responsibility for the police response on Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department (UCISD PD) Chief Pedro Arredondo, who they identified as the incident commander.

**Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri**

On July 31, 2022, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the Salafi jihadist group al-Qaeda, was killed by a United States drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan. The strike came nearly a year after the conclusion of the War in Afghanistan. U.S. officials called al-Zawahiri's presence in Afghanistan a violation of the agreement for the withdrawal of American forces from the country, under which the Taliban would not allow al-Qaeda members any sanctuary.

**Debt-Ceiling Crisis of 2023**

Signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which restrains federal spending for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, implements minor changes to SNAP and TANF, includes energy permitting reform, claws back some IRS funding and unspent money for COVID-19, and suspends the debt ceiling to January 1, 2025.

**Removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House**

On October 3, 2023, the United States House of Representatives voted to remove speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy of California through a motion to vacate filed by representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, a member of McCarthy's Republican Party. McCarthy's removal marked the first time a speaker of the House was removed through a motion to vacate. The absence of a speaker began a process to elect a speaker that will begin following an eight-day recess. The speaker's chair was vacated and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina—a McCarthy ally—was made speaker *pro tempore* and the House went without a proper speaker until the October 25 election of Mike Johnson of Louisiana. McCarthy subsequently announced his resignation from Congress effective at the end of 2023.

**2023 Israel–Hamas war**

On 7 October 2023, Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas launched a large-scale invasion and offensive against Israel from the Gaza Strip, breaking through the Gaza–Israel barrier and forcing entry via the Gaza border crossings, into nearby Israeli settlements and military installations. Hamas called it Operation al-Aqsa Storm. It is the first direct conflict within Israel's boundaries since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Hostilities were initiated in the early morning with a rocket barrage against Israel and vehicle-transported incursions into Israeli territory, with several attacks on surrounding Israeli civilian communities and Israeli military bases. Some observers have referred to these events as the beginning of a third Palestinian intifada. For the first time since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel formally declared war. An Israeli operation launched in response has been called Iron Swords by the IDF.

Throughout the war, there have been widespread global protests that have primarily called for a ceasefire or the release of the hostages. Israel and the United States have become increasingly internationally isolated as the latter vetoed multiple UN Security Council resolutions proposing a ceasefire, instead allowing one calling for a humanitarian pause to pass on 15 November. During a subsequent seven-day truce, 105 Israeli and foreign hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners. US military and diplomatic support for Israel during the war has been condemned by various human rights groups. Iranian-backed militias attacked American bases in Iraq and Syria, while the US and UK engaged in conflict with the Yemeni Houthi movement over its attacks on ships in the Red Sea it claimed were linked to Israel.

## Facts and Trivia

* At age 78 on his Inauguration, Joe Biden is the oldest person to assume office
* Biden is the first president to have a Female, African-American, and Asian-American Vice President (Kamala Harris)
* First president to appoint an African-American as Secretary of Defense (Lloyd Austin).
* First president to appoint a woman as Secretary of the Treasury (Janet Yellen)
* First president to appoint a Latino American as Secretary of Health and Human Services (Xavier Becerra)
* First president to appoint an openly gay person confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve in a cabinet position (Pete Buttigieg, as Secretary of Transportation).
* First president to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court (Ketanji Brown Jackson).
* Born to Joe Biden Sr. and Catherine Eugenia Biden
* The oldest child in a Catholic family of largely Irish descent and has a sister and two brothers
* At Archmere Academy in Claymont, Biden played baseball and was a standout halfback and wide receiver on the high school football team. Though a poor student, he was class president in his junior and senior years. He graduated in 1961. At the University of Delaware in Newark, Biden briefly played freshman football, and, as an unexceptional student, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965 with a double major in history and political science.
* Biden had a stutter, and has mitigated it since his early twenties
* Throughout his decades-long career as a U.S. senator, Biden commuted daily via Amtrak train between Wilmington, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.
* From 1991 to 2008, as an adjunct professor, Biden co-taught a seminar on constitutional law at Widener University School of Law. The seminar often had a waiting list. Biden sometimes flew back from overseas to teach the class.
* In February 1988, after several episodes of increasingly severe neck pain, Biden was taken by ambulance to Walter Reed Army Medical Center for surgery to correct a leaking intracranial berry aneurysm. While recuperating, he suffered a pulmonary embolism, a serious complication. After a second aneurysm was surgically repaired in May, Biden's recuperation kept him away from the Senate for seven months.
* Campaign for President two times, during 1988 and 2008
* Although vice presidents are generally restricted from driving during their time in office, Biden received permission to drive Jay Leno around in Biden's own 1967 Corvette Stingray for an episode of the web series "Jay Leno's Garage" (2016); the car had been his father's wedding gift to him.
* First president to turn 80 while in office.
* First president to meet with two British monarchs while in office (Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III)
* First president to visit the site of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma while in office
* First President to be in office when a House Speaker has been removed by the House of Representatives