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From his beginnings as a senator, to his nomination as Barack Obama’s running mate and his election as President of the United States, Joe Biden has left a mark on America’s political history over the last fifty years. Let us take a deep dive into his long-spanning career in the service of Uncle Sam.
In recent weeks, Joe Biden made a plethora of sizeable mistakes. On June 27, he looked flimsy in his first debate with former President Trump. He struggled to defend his arguments against a notoriously unfazed Republican candidate. Two weeks later, he mistook Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and his Vice-President Kamala Harris for his sworn enemy, Donald Trump, in the span of two hours. This was too much for the Democrats. It was clear that the Scranton, Pennsylvania native could no longer administer the highest office of one of the world’s greatest powers. Ten days following these glaring mishaps, Biden would withdraw from the American elections, marking the beginning of the end of a career that catapulted him to the peak.
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. comes from an Irish Catholic family that immigrated to the United States. His middle name was likely inherited from a French Protestant family that fled France following the Saint-Barthélémy massacre. Although genealogists are reluctant about it, Biden seems eager to tell this story to any who wish to hear it, “referencing” his French origins all while admitting that he is unsure about the accuracy of his claim. That being said, he comes from an all-American, hard-working, religious and loving family that rode the first waves of immigration to America. “My father taught me that family is the beginning, middle and end,” he said in a speech at the White House in 2023.
Family, the pillar of Biden’s political career
Joe Biden successfully joined the Democratic Party in 1970. A year later, he went on to win his first election as a local representative of New Castle county in Delaware. A father of three, in November 1972, at the age of 29, he became the fifth youngest senator in history. A month later, he would lose his wife and daughter in a road accident. On January 5, 1973, he swore an oath in hospital, while his oldest son Beau was receiving treatment. Reelected five times, Biden would spend as much time as possible with his family, and would take the train to Congress in Washington every single day for 36 years.
He met Jill, his current wife, in 1975. She bore him a daughter, Ashley, six years later. Jill would become his backbone and accompany him throughout his political career. The man who would become the 46th President of the United States would always say, “I’m Jill’s husband.” While she would stop working for two years to take care of their daughter and Biden’s two sons from his previous marriage, he gained popularity. In 1987, eyeing the presidency, he ran for the presidential primaries for the first time. However, allegations of plagiarism during one of his campaign speeches revealed a similar, older case – he reportedly copied one of the discourses he had read during his law studies – and forced him to withdraw. Biden would then suffer two aneurysms, prompting him to spend seven months in recovery.
An elected American rising through the ranks
Upon making his comeback, Biden would join the prestigious United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He would preside over the institution until 1995 and enact several laws, including the law on violent crimes and the one against narcotrafficking, although Biden would go on to shed more light on the legislation on domestic violence against women. According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), the law in question has “significantly improved federal, tribal, State, and local response to such crimes.”
Biden spent the second part of his career as a diplomat. He supported the use of force to enforce human rights in Kosovo, and stood, alongside President George W. Bush, for military intervention in Iraq. In 2001, Biden also passed the controversial Patriot Act, which allowed the US to detain, freely and without charges, any individual suspected of being part of a terrorist organization. The following year, he would become the first American elected official to visit Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.
A journey to the White House
Biden ran for president again in 2008, two decades after his first attempt. He would withdraw yet again, having scored poorly according to the Democratic primaries polls. During his campaign, he described Obama as “the first mainstream African-American […] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Although such a mishap is not his first, President Obama nonetheless disregarded it and named him as his running mate. On January 20, 2009, Biden entered the White House as Vice President of the United States.
He would fill this position all through the two mandates of Barack Obama. Biden became his main advisor, friend and confidante. The former President praised his empathy and fighting spirit, despite his many shortcomings, which made him look genuine to Obama. In February 2015, Biden lost his son Beau to brain cancer and declared, five months later, that he would not partake in the next presidential election. The Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton would lose against Donald Trump, the man who would become her main political adversary.
History’s oldest president
Expected to face the Republican giant in 2020, Biden’s aura grew large. In 2017, he published his memoirs, recounting a life brimming with challenges and resilience. The New York Times hailed it as a “dramatic, honest, raw, and richly detailed book.” However, Biden’s early campaign was harshly criticized, his figures disappointingly low. His performances in televized debates would put him back on track and Bernie Sanders – his sole remaining adversary – would withdraw and support him fully.
Joe Biden would enter the White House yet again, to sit in the Oval Office this time. On November 7, 2020, after four runs for presidency, he became America’s oldest President at age 78. His rise was long and hard, but his TV appearances ended up guaranteeing his election as President, a position he had been dreaming of since the age of 22 – back when he was a law school student at Syracuse University. On June 27, 2024, after four difficult years, Biden’s poor performance in his first debate against Trump was the swan song of his political career.
