Joe Biden Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Joe Biden

• Joe’s mother was of Irish descent, and his father was of Irish-French-English descent.

• According to him, his grandfather was forced to leave Ireland and relocate to the United States because of the British authorities.

• Biden spent his early childhood with his maternal grandparents as his father’s business incurred losses.

• Thereafter, he and his family relocated to Boston, where they purchased a four-bedroom house.
  

  A photo of Biden taken in his younger years with his family

• After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the family had to relocate to Joe’s maternal grandparents’ house again after another failed business attempt by his father.

• When Biden was in school, he wished to become a priest as his schooling majorly took place in Christian schools in Scranton.
  

  A photo of Biden taken when he was in Scranton

• He once was challenged by a friend of his to climb a 200-foot Culm mountain. He even received $5 after winning the bet.

• Biden has been a strong advocate against racial discrimination. In the 1960s, he managed to gain the support of fellow white students in the school to protest against a theatre that did not allow blacks.

• In 1961, Biden enrolled at the Archmere Academy in Claymont, Delaware, where he joined the football team and played in it as a standout halfback/wide receiver. He also served as the president of the school.

• Joe used to be very skinny as a teenager. His football coach talked about him, in an interview, and said,
  

  He was a skinny kid, but he was one of the best pass receivers I had in 16 years as a coach.”

  

  A photo of Joe Biden taken while he was a part of his college’s football team

• As a youngster, Biden faced a lot of bullying and embarrassment as he suffered from stammering. Many sources claim that he began playing sports and started excelling in them to overcome his stammering problem and be “socially acceptable.”

• He overcame stammering by practising speech and reciting poems in front of a mirror for hours.

• At Archmere Academy, Biden was an above-average student and received a “B” grade in high school.
  

  Biden (second from the left) while he was at the Archmere Academy

• In an interview, Biden revealed that he once refused to eat at a restaurant which did not agree to serve a friend of his who was of African origin.

• After joining undergraduate studies, Biden took a job as a lifeguard at a pool club. He was the only white American to work as a lifeguard there.
  

  Joe Biden as a lifeguard

• While studying at the University of Delaware, Biden played in the Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens football team as a halfback.

• Biden later left sports on his parents’ insistence as he did not get good grades in the early semesters.

• He was once punished by his headmaster after he jokingly sprayed a fire extinguisher on him at the University of Delaware.

• In 1963, the US military sent Biden a draft notification to report for training to complete his mandatory military service during the Vietnam War. However, since he was pursuing graduation, he was able to get his mandatory service deferred.

• In 1964, he met his wife, The duo dated for two years before getting married in 1966.

• By the time he completed his graduation, he had an average grade of C and was ranked 506 out of 688 students.

• After completing his graduation, he enrolled at the Syracuse University College of Law. He enrolled there to be close to Neilia Hunter.

• There, he became politically involved as a political activist and often campaigned for several congressional candidates.
  

  Joe’s photo taken while he was at the University of Delaware

• To pass, he used to borrow notes from his classmates and even took the help of Neilia.

• He later received a scholarship in the financial assistance category to help him cater to his financial needs.

• At the university, he was classmates with the American businessman William J. Brodsky. The two competed for the position of president, with Brodsky winning by one vote over Biden.

• While studying in their first year at Syracuse, Biden presented a report of 15 pages to the law faculty. The report was rejected as the faculty found that he had copy pasted 5 pages. The faculty also recommended failing Biden for it.

• In 1968, he was once again asked to complete his military service which he got deferred in 1963. He, however, got it deferred once more and did not complete his service.

• In April of the same year, Joe Biden was called for a medical examination for military service. However, the doctors determined that he should be called for service only in case of a national emergency due to his asthma, which he suffered from since his teenage years.

• Later, the military’s claims of Joe being asthmatic and being unfit for active military duty were challenged by many people, stating that “if he had respiratory disease, how could he play sports and be in teams?”

• In 1969, Biden completed his legal studies and stood 76 of 85 in his class.

• He cleared the Delaware State Bar Association (DSBA) examination and became its member in the same year.
  

  A photo of Biden taken while he was representing a client in a court of law

• Joe does not consume alcoholic beverages. In an interview, he revealed that he decided to stay away from consuming liquor after watching his father drink.

• While many Americans were critical of the US government’s decision to wage war in Vietnam, Biden supported the decision. He also avoided participating in anti-Vietnam War protests.

• Initially, Joe Biden was inclined politically towards the Republican Party. In the late 1960s, he joined the Wilmington law firm, which Republican Party member William Prickett owned.

• He did not like the Democratic Party’s racial policies and; therefore, he supported the Republican Party.

• Due to his liking towards the Republican Party, the party tried to influence him to register as a Republican voter. However, Biden refused to do so and instead became an independent voter.

• When explaining why he didn’t register as a Republican voter, Biden expressed disappointment that the Republican Mayor of Delaware had deployed National Guard troops to handle peaceful civil rights demonstrations.

• Later, Biden relocated to Wilmington in North Carolina, where he served as a public defender in a court.
  

  Biden’s photo taken while he was serving as a public defender

• Despite a short tenure as a public defender, Biden successfully defended many clients for which he received a lot of attention in national newspapers.

• Thereafter, Biden joined a Democrat named Sid Balick’s law firm.

• In 1969, he enrolled as a Democrat voter. As per sources, his time with Balick played a major role in influencing him to register.

• Soon after registering, Sid nominated Joe to a Democratic panel to have him serve on a committee overseeing the restructuring of the party in North Carolina.

• Biden stood as a Democrat candidate for the 1969 New Castle County Council elections. He adopted a door-to-door campaigning method, which led to his victory. He was among the few Democrats who had won a seat in the council.
  

  Biden serving in the New Castle County Council

• Following the elections, he started a law firm named Biden and Walsh, which looked into corporate law. Biden, however, did not like it as corporate law did not interest him.

• Later, he entered the real estate industry and managed properties, temporarily stepping away from law due to low pay.

• As his stature grew in the party, Biden was asked to contest the elections to become the Mayor of the state of North Carolina; however, he refused.

• After the 4th district was restructured in 1972, Biden decided to contest the Senate elections. He had earlier expressed his desire to contest Senate elections.
  

  A photo of Joe Biden’s 1972 Senate elections pamphlet

• While serving on the council, Biden was commended for addressing the issue of the construction of Interstate 95, which would have disrupted the Wilmington neighbourhood.

• In 1972, Biden filed a nomination to contest the Senate elections from Delaware after J. Caleb Boggs, a Republican, had expressed his desire to retire as a senator. However, Boggs later decided to run for the elections on President Richard Nixon’s insistence.

• When Biden started his election campaign, he didn’t have any financial support, so he used his own money for expenses. Later, he received support from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a trade union centre.
  

  Joe Biden addressing the media while he was campaigning for the elections

• During the campaigning, Biden changed his early stance from supporting the Vietnam War to demanding the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam.

• In the elections, held in November 1972, he defeated Boggs by a margin of 3,162 votes.

• Joe lost his wife and daughter Naomi in a car accident while the duo were travelling to a mall for Christmas shopping on 18 December 1972.
  

  A photo of the car in which Joe’s family was travelling which met with the accident

• After the incident, Biden decided to resign from his post as a Senator to look after his family, especially his two injured sons, Hunter, and Beau. However, he did not do so after Mike Mansfield, Senate Majority Leader, persuaded him.

• Later, Biden accused the driver of the vehicle that collided with his wife’s car of being drunk, a claim which he refuted.

• In 1999, following the driver’s death, his daughter took up the cause to challenge Biden’s claims that her father was drunk at the time of the accident. She also demanded that Biden issue a public apology.

• Later, when a court determined Biden’s statement to be false, he apologised to the driver’s daughter.
  

  A photo of the daughter of the driver who crashed his truck into Biden’s family’s car

• Biden was administered the oath of a Senator on 5 January 1973 at the Delaware Division of the Wilmington Medical Center. He became the sixth-youngest Senator and the eighteenth person to be sworn in before the age of 31.
  

  A photo Joe taken in the US Senate

• In the first few years, Biden laid emphasis on consumer protection and environmental issues and called for greater government accountability.

• He later supported the implementation of campaign finance reform, aimed at monitoring the finances obtained and spent by a candidate in an election.

• Every year, he observes 18 December as a day of remembrance for his wife and daughter, and he does not work on that day.

• He was mentioned as the 200 Faces for the Future by Time magazine in 1974.

• In the same year, he led a group of senators in Congress in demanding the abolition of the segregation of whites and blacks in public places, including buses and schools.

• This demand of his was not liked by the residents of Delaware from where he was chosen as a senator. During an event, the constituents reportedly physically assaulted Biden over the issue.

• After another altercation at Wilmington, Biden joined the group of senators demanding to stop integration listed in the limit the scope of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

• Biden met his second wife, Jill, in 1975 during a blind date which was set by his brother. Although it was a blind date, Biden had known about Jill as he had earlier seen her in a newspaper commercial.

• In an interview, Biden revealed that Jill initially rejected his marriage proposal multiple times because she was unsure about handling a life in the limelight.

• Joe was instrumental in the passage of the Labor-HEW Appropriations Act of 1976 which stopped the authorities from using public money to transport students who were not enrolled in schools closer to their homes.

• He declared his candidature for the 1988 Democratic Party presidential elections at the Wilmington train station in June 1987.

• Biden managed to collect more than $1.7 million during the fundraising activity for the party’s presidential elections.
  

  Joe Biden attending an election campaign for the 1987 Senate elections

• His popularity rapidly declined among the voters after it was revealed that he had copied a speech from British MP Neil Kinnock.

• His popularity further fell after he was caught lying to a voter. He claimed to have been awarded three educational degrees in law school and to have graduated at the top half of his law class.

• He withdrew his nomination from the elections in September 1987.

• Biden suffered from a brain aneurysm rupture two times on each side of his brain in 1988.

• Thereafter, he was taken to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he underwent brain surgery for intracranial berry aneurysm correction.

• It took Biden 7 months to recover from the surgery.

• He later announced his candidature in the 1988 Presidential elections; however, he withdrew his candidature later.

• While serving as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden presided over many important Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Two of the most notable cases were of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.
  

  Joe Biden during a Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the US Senate

• In 1991, Biden joined the Faculty of Law at Widener University as a teacher of constitutional law. He served in the University until he was appointed the United States Vice President in 2009.
  

  A photo of Joe taken while he was giving a lecture at the Widener University

• In 1993, Joe supported the passage of 10 U.S.C. §654, which sought to ban homosexuals from enlisting in the United States military.

• He later supported the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy of the Department of Defence (DOD) under which homosexuals were allowed to join the US military on the condition of maintaining secrecy of their sexual orientation.

• In 1994, Biden played an instrumental role in the implementation of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which placed certain limitations on the sale and purchase of automatic assault weapons.

• Joe Biden voted in favour of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, which prohibited the recognition of same-sex marriages by legal institutions.

• He has frequently advocated against the use of drugs such as flunitrazepam, ecstasy, and ketamine, which are commonly associated with acquaintance rape and dating violence. For this, he presented the Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy (RAVE) Act, which was passed later.

• Biden then launched the Kids 2000 campaign, which established computer centres with teachers, internet access, and technical training, especially for young people from low-income backgrounds.
  

  Joe while addressing the Kids 2000 campaign

• As a senator, Biden served in the NATO Observer Group, which oversaw the deployment of NATO troops.

• While serving as a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Biden reportedly visited more than 150 countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe.
  

  Joe Biden meeting the leaders of the African countries

• In 1991, Biden was among the few senators who voted against the deployment of the US troops in the Middle East during the Gulf War. He argued that while the US was spending a lot of money on the war, other NATO members were unwilling to spend money.

• In the same year, when the war for independence broke out in Bosnia, Biden asked the Clinton administration to send US troops citing severe violations of human rights in the region.

• He is also considered to be instrumental in convincing the government to support and train Bosnian Muslims with arms and aerial bombardments.
  

  Joe Biden in Serbia posing in front of an armoured vehicle of the United Nations (UN)

• In 1992, Biden was asked to write a column for the Wall Street Journal on the foreign policies of the US and his vision for US foreign policy.

• Biden visited Serbia and met Slobodan Milošević, their leader, in 1993. There, he reportedly entered into a verbal altercation with Milošević and called him a war criminal. In an interview, Biden talked about the incident and said,
  

  I think you’re a damn war criminal and you should be tried as one. This guy looked at me as if I said, ‘Lots of luck in your senior year.”

  

  Joe Biden in a conference with Milošević in Serbia

• After that, the US sent American troops as part of a multinational peacekeeping contingent of NATO to Bosnia, which Biden claims to the “most proudest day of his life.”

• Biden was instrumental in encouraging the US government to facilitate a peace treaty between the United Kingdom and Ireland, which later came to be known as the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
  

  British and Irish Heads of State signing peace documents

• For his role during the Bosnian War, Biden was mentioned as one of the twelve who made a difference in the Senate by Congressional Quarterly in 1988.

• He later presided over a committee that oversaw the formulation of a national drug control policy, commonly referred to as the drug czar.

• Biden later proposed many policies that allowed many countries to become members of NATO, leading to the organisation’s expansion.

• According to sources, Biden had predicted the disintegration of the Soviet Union as well as the end of the Cold War in the early 1980s. He had also written many letters to the US government demanding the formulation of a post-Cold War policy.

• Biden was known as a critic of the Clinton administration, especially during the 1996 United States campaign finance controversy. He frequently pointed out the government’s illegal decision to send commercial satellites to China, which was increasing Chinese influence in US policy-making.

• Later, he became a member of the Financial Task Force, which investigated the policies of the government and recommended steps to reduce the PRC’s influence.

• He criticized and pressured the Clinton administration to permit the United Nations (UN) to inspect the Iraqi nuclear arsenal without any interference. This came after a UN inspector accused the Clinton government of not allowing his team into Iraq to investigate in 1988.

• In 1999, Senator John McCain and Joe co-presented the Kosovo Resolution to pressurise the government to send troops and materials of war to end the rule of the Serbian ruler Milošević.

• In 2001, Biden advised against allocating funds to tackle Iraq but to focus on addressing the Taliban in Afghanistan. He later voted in favour of military action against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

• He changed his stance on Iraq in 2002 when he presented a speech in the Senate calling for the removal of Saddam Hussein as the dictator of Iraq.

• In the same year, Biden voted in favour of military action against Iraq, a move which was criticised by many Democrats. The criticisms led to Biden change his position once more and become anti-Iraq War.
  

  Biden with other politicians standing next to President Bush who is signing the Iraq War declaration

• Biden is credited with securing the freedom of a Syrian political activist named Fathi Eljahmi. He secured his freedom by personally meeting with the then-Syrian dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2008.
  

  Fathi Eljahmi’s image

• Biden played a vital role in constructing the Dover Air Force Base and New Castle Air National Guard Base in Delaware, costing around $25 million.

• On 7 January 2007, Joe Biden announced his candidature for the 2008 Presidential elections. He stood against prominent American leaders like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
  

  A photo of Joe Biden and Barack Obama taken during a political debate in 2008

• While campaigning for the elections, Joe centred it around establishing a federal form of governance in Iraq.

• He withdrew his nomination as a presidential candidate on 3 January 2008 after receiving less than a per cent vote in the Iowa Caucus and stood fifth in the popularity rankings.

• In August 2008, he was offered the position of Vice President following which he became Barack Obama’s running mate.
  

  Obama and Biden after Biden’s announcement as the Vice Presidential candidate of the Democratic Party

• According to sources, Biden played a vital role in campaigning for Obama, which resulted in a rise in the latter’s image.

• Biden and Obama did not share a cordial relationship. However, it changed after Biden started campaigning for Obama. Obama even assured Biden that if he got elected as the President of the United States, he would appoint Biden in charge of an important department.

• On 27 August 2008, the Democratic Party officially nominated him as its vice presidential choice after conducting a voice vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

• President Obama reportedly didn’t appreciate Biden’s remarks. He once commented on a particular statement that received negative feedback from Americans, saying, “How many times is Biden going to say something stupid?”

• His habit of making controversial remarks earned him the nickname “Joe Bombs” from Obama’s staffers. Due to this, Obama preferred not to include him in meetings discussing the party’s strategies, which Joe did not like.

• During the later phase of the 2008 Presidential election campaigning, Biden and Obama’s relationship strained over certain disagreements; however, the relationship improved significantly after Biden called and asked Obama for his forgiveness.

• In September of the same year, Joe recommended the implementation of the $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, which was later passed in the Senate as well. This bill aimed at tackling the 2007–2008 financial crisis.

• In the same year, Biden stood for the Senate election from Delaware. Despite winning the elections, he resigned as he had won the Vice Presidential elections.

• He became the first person from Delaware as well as the first Roman Catholic to be appointed as the Vice President.

• When Hillary, as the Secretary of State, presented the notion of sending 21,000 additional American soldiers to Afghanistan, Biden objected to it. However, in a debate which took place on the issue, Biden lost.

• To implement the government’s vision of governance in Iraq, Biden travelled to Iraq once every two months to interact with the Iraqi government and inform them of the expectations of the US.
  

  A photo of Joe Biden taken in Iraq with American troops

• Thereafter, Biden presented the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen the financial sector.

• His 2009 statement on avoiding contracting swine flu after the outbreak of the swine flu in the US made headlines. Later, the Whitehouse issued a statement in which they sidelined his statement.

• In July of the same year, when Biden was asked about the rising unemployment in the US due to the recession, he said that the government had “misread how bad the economy was.” This statement was reportedly not liked by Obama.

• In 2010, Obama’s popularity had significantly declined. This led the Democratic Party to consider replacing Biden with Hillary Clinton as the vice president. However, the idea was dropped after Obama objected to it. It was determined that bringing Hillary as the vice presidential candidate in the 2012 elections would not have an impact on Obama’s popularity.

• In March of the same year, Biden persuaded Obama who was sceptical of implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). It later came to be known as “Obamacare.”
  

  President Obama and Vice President Biden in the Oval Office, White House, during a discussion

• To prevent the strain on the US treasury, Obama asked Biden to work with Congress to find methods of reducing financial expenditure in 2011. Biden prevented a complete shutdown of the government.

• In August of the same year, Biden played a vital role in the signing of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which led to the solving of the U.S. debt ceiling crisis.

• In 2011, Biden was against the government’s decision to undertake a special military operation to kill Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan as he believed that if the mission failed, it would severely impact President Obama’s image before the Presidential elections.

• In May 2012, while campaigning for the Presidential elections, Biden released a statement in which he claimed that he supported the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the United States. However, Obama was dissatisfied with his statement as the administration did not approve it. Biden later apologised to Obama.

• After Biden’s statement, Obama too released a statement on supporting same-sex marriage as many gay rights NGOs pressurised him reportedly.

• Biden and Obama’s relationship prospered despite differences in opinion due to their daughters’ friendship.

• He played a vital role in the signing of the New START Treaty with the Russian Federation. This treaty paved the way towards the de-nuclearisation of Russia and the US.
  

  Joe Biden with the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov during a meeting in Europe

• Biden was instrumental in the establishment of several women-oriented Congressional committees such as the White House Council on Women and Girls and the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.

• Biden was invited to attend the 88th Academy Awards, where he received appreciation for his speech on women’s safety and his roadmap to ensure the safety of women.

• In 2014, when the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were operating at their peak in the Middle East, Biden presented a bill which called for supporting the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Kurdish Peshmerga in their fight against the terrorists.

• While serving as the Vice President of the United States, Biden did not cast his tie-breaking Vice President’s vote in the Senate thus becoming the longest-serving VP to do so.

• Before the 2016 Presidential elections in the US, Biden was pressurised to contest for the post of the President. He, however, did not do so as he had lost his son Beau and was not in the frame of mind to contest the elections.

• In 2016, he announced his decision to not run for the office of the President at a political convention in the White House Rose Garden. Biden said,
  

  Nobody has a right, in my view, to seek that office unless they’re willing to give it 110% of who they are. And I am, as I said, I’m optimistic, I’m positive about where we’re going. But I find myself – you understand it – sometimes it just overwhelms you.”

• Later, the University of Pennsylvania appointed him as an honorary professor. Following this, he established the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. He held the post till 2019 until his nomination for the post of the President.
  

  Joe Biden after the establishment of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement

• In 2017, he published a book titled Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose. The book talks about his struggles with Beau’s brain cancer.
  

  Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose’s cover page

• To support Biden’s candidacy for the 2020 Presidential bid against President Donald Trump, the Democratic Party established a Political Action Committee (PAC) named Time for Biden in 2018.

• A report emerged in 2019, which claimed that Biden had earned more than $15 million by the book’s sales and attending numerous talk shows.

• In the debates that took place between Biden and Trump ahead of the 2020 Presidential elections, Biden had an upper hand over Trump as a result of which Biden’s popularity grew.
  

  Donald Trump and Joe Biden during a debate before the 2020 Presidential elections

• His favouritism grew further after Trump’s impeachment from the Senate. This came after Trump allegedly pressurised Ukrainian President Zelensky to conduct a rigged investigation against Biden for reportedly taking a bribe from Ukraine.

• On 18 August 2020, Biden became the presumptive nominee for president of the Democratic Party.

• Along with Biden, Kamala Harris too was a Presidential candidate. Initially, Harris had an upper hand in terms of support from the public over Joe Biden. However, her popularity decreased manifolds after Joe defeated her in a one-on-one debate.
  

  A photo of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden taken while they were debating one another during primary Presidential candidate selection elections

• Harris later withdrew her nomination and promised to support Biden’s bid for the Presidential elections.

• In the elections, Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump 306-232 in the Electoral College and had a 4-point margin in the popular vote.

• Biden was supposed to be administered the oath of presidency soon after winning the elections. However, the oath ceremony was delayed as Trump refused to vacate the office citing voter fraud. He finally left the office after the White House ordered the Federal agencies to not adhere to Trump’s orders.

• Biden was officially administered the oath as the President of the United States on 23 November 2020. He became the oldest person in the history of the US to become president.

• Soon after taking office, Biden passed an executive order seeking to halt the construction of an electrified border wall which had begun on Donald Trump’s orders.

• He later reversed Trump’s decision to revoke the US participation in the climate change meetings.
  

  Joe during the United Nations Climate Change Summit

• He later mandated the coronavirus vaccination and set a goal for the medical industry to achieve per month.

• Joe is an avid supporter of Israel and has often made statements dedicated to the defence of Israel.
  

  President Biden with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the US

• Under the Trump administration, the United States did not pay much attention to the human rights violations in Russia; however, when Biden took office, the government released many official memos on the issue.
  

  Biden with President Putin during a meeting

• In 2020, the government asked the Russian government to release the Leader of the Opposition and social activist Alexei Navalny and his family from the prison. After Navalny was poisoned in prison, the US government asked the UN to form a committee to officially investigate the issue.

• In 2021, Joe passed an executive order in the Senate which made the appointment of a person who had served in the US Armed Forces to the post of Defence Secretary. He later appointed Lloyd Austin to the post; the first African-American to be appointed to the post.

• Biden has worked towards making healthcare affordable for the citizens. For this, he, in 2022, implemented the Inflation Reduction Act (worth $64 billion) as well as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (worth $265 billion).

• In the same year, the Biden administration passed the Honoring Our Pact Act, which provided medical coverage to former US military personnel who suffered from diseases caused by pit burning.

• One of the major reasons for the passage of this bill was Biden’s belief that his deceased son, Beau, developed brain cancer due to inhaling toxic air from the burning pits during his tenure in the Iraq War.

• Under Biden, the American economy grew manifold. The recession dropped and the unemployment rate also decreased.

• Biden has often sought to remove US military personnel stationed outside the US. In 2021, he ordered the military to remove its personnel and hardware from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations.

• One of the reasons behind this was Biden’s strategy to keep troops ready to counter China owing to its threatening stature against Taiwan in the South China Sea.
  

  Biden and Xi Jinping during a meeting in the United States

• He also brought a policy under which drone strikes were reduced drastically across the world. This was seen as a contrast to Obama’s policy under whose presidency the US conducted the highest number of drone strikes.

• The Biden administration later released a list of 59 Chinese companies in which the Americans were banned from investing.

• He is among the few Presidents of the United States to have acknowledged and expressed solidarity with the Uyghurs living in China.

• The relations between China and the US worsened when China reportedly sent a spy balloon to the US in 2023. However, China has maintained that the balloons were for weather and were not a spying device.

• After Biden ordered the shootdown of the balloon, he expressed his desire to speak to the Chinese Premiere. However, the Chinese officials denied the request, which further downgraded the relations.
  

  A photo of the Chinese spy balloon taken by the United States Air Force’s F22 Raptor aircraft before and after shooting it down

• Under Biden, the US administration lifted the economic and financial sanctions placed on Cuba over human rights violations. The sanctions were placed on the country by Obama and removed only after the US Congress filed an official plea in the White House.

• In 2021, President Biden extended the deadline set by former President Trump for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by four months.

• Biden received a lot of criticism from the international community for not ordering the US Military to stay in Afghanistan to help the Afghan National Army (ANA) against the Taliban’s offence. Under pressure, Biden allowed the US forces to evacuate civilians and high-value individuals from Afghanistan.

• Biden later accepted that his fault in “messing up” the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan. He talked about it and said,
  

  This did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated. Afghan leaders gave up and fled the country, and the Afghan military refused to fight the advancing Taliban forces. American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”

  

  The iconic photo of Afghan civilians chasing an American military aircraft about to take off from the Kabul air base

• In April of the same year, Biden became the first president to acknowledge the genocide done by Turkey and its allies against the Armenian people in its war against Azerbaijan.

• The relations between France and the United States worsened after Australia cancelled a deal of submarine with the latter due to alleged American lobbying and promises of supplying superior American nuclear submarines to Australia.

• The situation worsened so much that France recalled its Ambassador to the US Philippe Étienne. Later, France asked its ambassador to Australia to come back.

• To calm the situation, Biden visited France, where he met President Emmanuel Macron and said that the US was not aware of the already existing submarine deal between Australia and France.
  

  Macron, the President of France, with Joe Biden

• In 2022, Biden met the representatives of the African Union (AU) and discussed trade and political issues, including the rise of the Islamic terrorist faction Boko Haram. They later signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in support of the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA).

• He later committed billions of dollars towards the generation of electricity in Africa.

• After the families of the US citizens arrested and detained abroad started a campaign named Bring Our Families Home, Biden established a committee to look into the detention of the citizens. It was found that 90 per cent of the people imprisoned outside were falsely charged. He then passed an executive order aimed at “preventing the unlawful arrest of Americans in other countries.”

• Biden was applauded for his efforts in getting several Americans released from Russian prisons in 2024. These people were arrested on the charges of espionage during the Cold War.

• To counter China’s expansionist policies in the South China Sea, Joe Biden co-headed the creation of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), which includes the United States of America, Japan, India, and Australia.
  

  President Joe Biden with the other members of the QUAD

• Thereafter, Biden led the establishment of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), which was aimed at halting the Chinese economic influence in Asia and helping the countries that had fallen into the Chinese debt trap.

• Later, Biden claimed that the Russian government offered bounties to the terrorists for killing the US soldiers, especially officers, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

• In 2022, the Biden administration received criticism as at first they allowed Russian refugees who had escaped Russia to avoid getting drafted into the military and then later deporting them to Russia, where they were persecuted by the regime.

• Later, Putin offered a ceasefire in Ukraine; however, the offer was rejected by the US as it demanded the due participation of Ukraine in the offering.

• In 2024, Biden met Zelensky in the United States. During the meeting, Zelensky reportedly sought permission from Biden to use American weapons to strike at the targets in Russia. Biden allowed it at one condition that Ukraine hit the targets which are near the Russia-Ukraine border.
  

  A photo of Joe Biden taken with the President of Ukraine Zelensky

• In July 2024, Biden stated that he was planning on passing an executive order to start placing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) in Europe and Latin America. Following this, President Putin warned the US and promised retaliation should the US place its missiles outside its borders.

• He later expressed his desire to start dialogues with Iran on the Iran Nuclear Deal from which Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

• After Biden stated that the US was planning on placing nuclear warheads in Japan to counter the Chinese military threat, Russia and China began aggressive military posturing around Japan.

• Biden has often spoken against the American gun culture and has asked for strict measures to control mass shootings.
  

  Joe holding the lower receiver of a disassembled pistol

• In February 2024, Biden reportedly confirmed his failure to persuade Israel to stop its war against Hamas to minimize civilian deaths.

• Later, the relations between the US and Uganda strained after the latter passed its anti-LGBTQIA+ bill, Biden imposed sanctions on the country and banned the country from the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

• In 2024, Biden revealed that he would once again run for the post of the President of the United States. However, owing to his failing health and poor performance in debates against Donald Trump, he declared withdrawal from the candidacy.

• Biden has often been made fun of for making bizarre speeches in public. In 2024, he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as Donald Trump and President Zelensky as Vladimir Putin.

• Biden is often referred to as one of the “least wealthiest senators.”

• In ten years, Biden’s net worth increased manifolds. In 2009, he reported his net worth to be approximately $28,000; whereas, in 2020, his net worth was around $9 million.

• Joe Biden is an avid animal lover and owns two German Shepherds named Major and Commander. He also owns a tabby cat named Willow.
  

  A photo of Joe Biden with his pet German Shepherd Major

• He loves to wear Aviators from Ray-Ban, which he has been wearing since his job as a lifeguard.

• He owns a Corvette, which was gifted to him by his father in 1967.

• Had Biden not become a politician, he would have become an architect.

• He wears rosary beads on his hand. This bead belonged to his deceased son Beau.

• Due to his age, Biden often engages in actions that result in the creation of memes.

• According to sources, Christopher Biden, a British officer who played a key role in the establishment and administration of the East India Company, is an ancestor of Joe Biden.
  

  Christopher Biden’s portrait

• Biden owns an expensive collection of wrist watches. Some of these include Omega Seamaster 300M (worth $7000), Seiko 7T32 Chronograph (worth $5000), and Vulcain Cricket (worth $7000).