Can a Vice President Run Against the President

Joe Biden is the president of the United States. He also served equally Barack Obama'due south vice president from 2008-2016.

Who Is Joe Biden?

Joe Biden briefly worked every bit an chaser earlier turning to politics. He became the fifth-youngest U.S. senator in history every bit well as Delaware's longest-serving senator. His 2008 presidential campaign never gained momentum, merely Democratic nominee Barack Obama selected him equally his running mate, and Biden went on to serve 2 terms as the 47th vice president of the Usa. In 2017, at the close of his assistants, Obama presented Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 2 years after Biden launched his campaign for U.S. president and was elected equally the 46th president of the U.s..

Early Years

Long earlier reaching ane of the highest political offices in the nation, Biden — born on Nov 20, 1942 — grew up in the bluish-neckband city of Scranton in northeast Pennsylvania. His father, Joseph Biden Sr., worked cleaning furnaces and as a used motorcar salesman. His mother was Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Finnegan.

Biden credits his parents with instilling in him toughness, hard work and perseverance. He has recalled his father frequently saying, "Champ, the mensurate of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how chop-chop he gets upward." He's also said that when he would come home sullen because he had been bullied past one of the bigger kids in the neighborhood, his mother would tell him, "Bloody their nose and then you can walk down the street the side by side day!'"

Biden attended St. Paul'southward Elementary School in Scranton. In 1955, when he was 13 years one-time, the family moved to Mayfield, Delaware—a rapidly growing middle-class community sustained primarily by the nearby DuPont chemical visitor.

As a child, Biden struggled with a stutter, and kids chosen him "Nuance" and "Joe Impedimenta" to mock him. He eventually overcame his oral communication impediment by memorizing long passages of poetry and reciting them out loud in front of the mirror.

Biden attended the St. Helena School until he gained acceptance into the prestigious Archmere University. Although he had to work by washing the school windows and weeding the gardens to help his family beget tuition, Biden had long dreamed of attending the school, which he chosen "the object of my deepest want, my Oz." At Archmere, Biden was a solid student and, despite his small size, a standout receiver on the football game team. "He was a skinny kid," his motorcoach remembered, "but he was ane of the all-time laissez passer receivers I had in xvi years as a double-decker." Biden graduated from Archmere in 1961.

College, Marriage and Law School

Biden attended the nearby University of Delaware, where he studied history and political scientific discipline and played football. He would subsequently admit that he spent his first two years of college far more interested in football, girls and parties than academics. But he also adult a sharp involvement in politics during these years, spurred in part by the inspiring inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.

On a spring intermission trip to the Bahamas during his junior year, Biden met a Syracuse University pupil named Neilia Hunter and, in his own words, "fell ass over can cup in dear — at offset sight." Encouraged past his new love, he applied himself more than fully to his studies and was accustomed into the Syracuse Academy Law School upon his graduation from Delaware in 1965. Biden and Hunter married the next year, in 1966.

Biden was at best a mediocre law student. During his commencement twelvemonth at Syracuse, he flunked a class for declining to properly cite a reference to a law review article. Although he claimed it was an accidental oversight, the incident would haunt him later in his career.

PHOTOS: Joe Biden's Family unit Anthology

Early Political Career

Afterward graduating from law school in 1968, Biden moved to Wilmington, Delaware, to begin practicing at a law business firm. He also became an agile member of the Democratic Party, and in 1970 he was elected to the New Castle County Quango. While serving as councilman, in 1971, Biden started his own law firm.

In addition to his increasingly busy professional life, Biden had three children: Joseph "Beau" (built-in in 1969), Robert "Hunter" (born in 1970) and Naomi "Amy" (built-in in 1971). "Everything was happening faster than I expected," Biden said about his life at the fourth dimension.

In 1972, the Delaware Democratic Party encouraged a 29-yr-old Biden to run confronting the popular Republican incumbent J. Caleb Boggs for the U.s.a. Senate. Although few thought he stood whatever gamble, Biden ran a tireless campaign organized mostly past family members. His sister, Valerie Biden Owens, served as his campaign director, and both of his parents campaigned daily. That November, in a tight race with a big turnout, Biden won an upset victory to get the 5th-youngest U.S. senator elected in the nation'southward history.

Family Tragedy

Just every bit all of Biden's wildest dreams seemed to be coming true, he was struck by devastating tragedy. A calendar week earlier Christmas in 1972, Biden's wife and iii children were involved in a terrible automobile blow while out shopping for a Christmas tree. The accident killed his wife and daughter and severely injured both of his sons, Beau and Hunter. Biden was inconsolable and even considered suicide. He recalls, "I began to understand how despair led people to just cash in; how suicide wasn't merely an option but a rational option ... I felt God had played a horrible play a joke on on me, and I was angry."

Nevertheless, at the encouragement of his family unit, Biden decided to honor his commitment to representing the people of Delaware in the Senate. He skipped the swearing-in ceremony for new senators in Washington and instead took the oath of role from his sons' hospital room. In order to spend as much time as possible with his sons, Biden decided to continue to live in Wilmington, commuting to and from Washington each day by Amtrak train, a practise he maintained through his unabridged long tenure in the Senate.

READ More: The Heartbreaking Auto Accident that Killed Joe Biden's Married woman and Daughter

Senate Years

From 1973 to 2009, Biden served a distinguished Senate career. During his fourth dimension in the Senate, Biden won respect as 1 of the trunk's leading foreign policy experts, serving as chairman of the Commission on Foreign Relations for several years. His many foreign policy positions included advocating for strategic artillery limitation with the Soviet Union, promoting peace and stability in the Balkans, expanding NATO to include former Soviet-bloc nations and opposing the First Gulf War. In later years, he chosen for American action to end the genocide in Darfur and spoke out against President George W. Bush-league's handling of the Iraq War, particularly opposing the troop surge of 2007.

In addition to foreign policy, Biden was an outspoken proponent of tougher crime laws. In 1987, Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's failure to receive confirmation was largely attributed to harsh questioning past Biden, who was then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1994, Biden sponsored the Tearing Criminal offense Control and Law Enforcement Human action to add together 100,000 police officers and increment sentences for a host of crimes.

Presidential Ambitions

In 1987, having established himself as one of Washington'southward most prominent Autonomous lawmakers, Biden decided to run for the U.S. presidency. He dropped out of the Democratic primary, even so, later reports surfaced that he had plagiarized part of a speech.

Biden had been suffering severe headaches during the campaign, and shortly after he dropped out in 1988, doctors discovered that he had two life-threatening brain aneurysms. Complications from the ensuing encephalon surgery led to blood clots in his lungs, which, in plough, caused him to undergo another surgery. Always resilient, Biden returned to the Senate afterward surviving a 7-month recovery period.

U.S. Vice President

In 2007, 20 years after his showtime unsuccessful presidential bid, Biden once more decided to run for the U.S. presidency. Despite his years of experience in the Senate, nevertheless, Biden'south campaign failed to generate much momentum in a field dominated by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Biden dropped out after receiving less than ane percent of the vote in the crucial Iowa caucuses.

Several months later, though, Obama — having secured the Democratic nomination later on a hard-fought campaign confronting Clinton — selected Biden as his running mate. With his working-class roots, Biden helped the Obama campaign communicate its message of economic recovery to the blue-collar voters crucial to swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

On November 2, 2008, Barack Obama and Joe Biden convincingly defeated the Republican ticket of Arizona Senator John McCain and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. On Jan 20, 2009, Obama was sworn in as the 44th U.S. president and Biden became the 47th vice president.

While Biden mostly served in the function of behind-the-scenes adviser to the president, he took particularly agile roles in formulating federal policies relating to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2010, the vice president used his well-established Senate connections to help secure passage of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and the Russia.

Biden seemed to relish the opportunity to play a crucial office in the Obama Assistants. Following the 2008 ballot, he said, "This is an historic moment. I started my career fighting for civil rights, and to be a role of what is both a moment in American history where the best people, the best ideas, the how can I say it?—the single best reflection of the American people tin can be called upon—to be at that moment, with a guy who has such incredible talent and who is also a breakthrough figure in multiple means—I genuinely discover that exciting. Information technology'southward a new America. It'due south the reflection of a new America."

Re-Election and Second Term

Running for re-election in 2012, the Obama-Biden team faced Republican challenger Manus Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, and Romney's vice-presidential running mate, U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Obama defeated Romney in the 2022 ballot, earning a second term as president and Biden another term as vice president. President Obama received nigh sixty pct of the balloter vote, and won the popular vote by more than than i million ballots.

Subsequently that twelvemonth, Biden showed just how influential a vice president he could exist. He was instrumental in achieving a bipartisan agreement on taxation increases and spending cuts to avoid the fiscal cliff crunch. With a looming deadline, Biden was able to hammer out a deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. On January 1, 2013, the fiscal cliff bill passed in the Senate subsequently months of tough negotiations. The House of Representatives canonical information technology later that solar day.

Effectually this fourth dimension, Biden too became a leading figure in the national argue about gun command. He was selected to head up a special task force on the consequence after the schoolhouse shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school that Dec. Biden delivered solutions for reducing gun violence across the nation to President Obama in Jan 2013. He helped craft 19 actions that the president could take on the issue using his ability of executive order among other recommendations.

Personal Life and Post-Vice Presidency

Biden has been married to his second wife, Jill Biden, since 1977. The couple's daughter, Ashley, was built-in in 1981. On May thirty, 2015, Biden suffered some other personal loss when his son Fellow died at the age of 46, after battling encephalon cancer. "Swain Biden was, quite just, the finest man any of united states have ever known," Biden wrote in a statement well-nigh his son.

READ MORE: Inside Joe Biden'due south Unbreakable Bail With Son Beau

Following this tragedy, Biden considered a run for the presidency, just he put the speculation to rest in October 2022 when he announced that he would not seek the 2022 Democratic nomination. In the White Firm Rose Garden with his wife Jill and President Obama past his side, Biden fabricated his declaration, referring to his son's recent death in his decision making: "As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I've said all along what I've said time and again to others, that it may very well be that the process past the fourth dimension we get through it closes the window. I've concluded it has closed."

Biden added: "While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out conspicuously and forcefully, to influence as much as I can where we stand up as a party and where we need to go as a nation."

On January 12, 2017, President Obama presented Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the nation's highest civilian honor, in a surprise ceremony at the White Business firm. Obama called Biden "the best vice president America's ever had" and a "panthera leo of American history," and told him he was being honored for ''religion in your fellow Americans, for your love of country and a lifetime of service that will endure through the generations.'' Biden gave an emotional impromptu speech thanking the president, First Lady Michelle Obama, his wife Jill and his children.

As promised, Biden refused to remain quiet even after leaving office. Known for his opposition to Obama's successor, Donald Trump, he occasionally surfaced to criticize the 45th president. At an Oct 2022 outcome he declared that Trump "doesn't sympathise governance," and the following month he blasted the White House incumbent for his seeming defense of white nationalist groups.

Additionally, Biden occasionally revealed his mixed feelings on bypassing the hazard to run for president in 2016. In March 2017, he said he "could take won," and in November, he elaborated on those thoughts in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. "No woman or man should announce they're running for president unless they can reply two questions," he said. "1, do they truly believe they're the nearly qualified person for that moment? I believed I was — but was I prepared to be able to give my whole heart, my whole soul, and all my intention to the endeavor? And I knew I wasn't."

A few weeks later, on the talk show The View, Biden had a much-publicized interaction with co-host Meghan McCain, whose dad, Senator John McCain, had been diagnosed with the same brain cancer that killed Fellow Biden. When Meghan McCain became visibly upset while discussing the disease, the VP gently took her mitt to console her, pointing out how Senator McCain inspired everyone with his backbone. "There is hope," he said. "And if everyone tin can make it, your dad [tin can]."

In an interview with Al Sharpton the post-obit jump, Biden said he hadn't ruled out running for president in 2020, though he nevertheless hadn't recovered enough from his son's expiry to devote himself to the try. "I'1000 actually hoping that some other folks stride upwardly," he said. "I call back we accept some really adept people. … I got to walk abroad knowing that information technology is — at that place'southward somebody who tin can do it and can win considering we've got to win. We've got to win in 2020."

The results of a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll in June suggested that Democrats weren't ready to let Biden walk abroad just even so, as he topped the poll with 32 percent of participants naming him their favorite for the party's nomination in 2020. Hillary Clinton came in 2d at 18 percent, with Bernie Sanders finishing third at sixteen per centum.

While still contemplating a presidential run the post-obit March, Biden faced a new problem when Lucy Flores, a former Nevada country assemblywoman, published an essay that described Biden inappropriately kissing her at a entrada effect. Biden responded with a statement in which he recalled the "endless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort," he offered to political allies over the years, adding, "And not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. Simply it was never my intention."

A few days subsequently, a onetime congressional aide named Amy Lappos came frontward with her story of how Biden once made her uncomfortable at a fundraiser, indicating the issue would likely linger through a presidential campaign.

2020 Presidential Campaign

On April 25, 2019, Biden delivered the expected news that he was running for president in 2020.

In his three i/2-infinitesimal video announcement, the former VP referenced President Trump's attempt to equate people on both sides of the vehement, racially charged clash in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, saying he knew then that "the threat to our nation was unlike any I'd always seen in my lifetime."

Although he easily led nearly Autonomous polls at the time he entered the race, Biden's candidacy soon became a litmus test for a political party with an increasingly progressive base of operations. Underscoring the challenges of presenting himself as a moderate, Biden drew criticism for affirming his support of the Hyde Subpoena, a 43-year-old mensurate that banned federal funding for abortions, before reversing his position before long afterward.

During the beginning Autonomous primary argue in late June, Biden again found his track record targeted when Kamala Harris took him to job for his opposition to busing equally a ways of integrating schools in the 1970s. He fared amend in subsequent debates, in which he demonstrated his sound grasp of strange policy and tied his accomplishments to those of President Obama.

Meanwhile, a new issue surfaced in September 2022 with the revelation that President Trump had pressured the Ukrainian government into investigating Biden and his son Hunter. This stemmed from Hunter'southward former involvement with a Ukrainian energy visitor, Burisma Holdings, and Biden'southward efforts to have the state'southward prosecutor full general at the time fired.

In a September 24 speech, Biden called Trump'south actions an "abuse of power" and said he would back up impeachment if the president did not cooperate with Congress, a topic that took on additional urgency when Business firm Speaker Nancy Pelosi ignited impeachment proceedings that same twenty-four hour period.

Subsequently Trump's impeachment trial ended with his acquittal on February 5, 2020, Biden finished 4th in the Iowa caucuses and so fifth in the New Hampshire primary. But he rebounded with a resounding win in South Carolina at the end of the month, and continued his momentum past claiming the bulk of delegates from Super Tuesday voting in early March, his surge driving most of his pinnacle competitors from the race.

During a ane-on-i contend with Sanders in mid-March, Biden committed to nominating a woman to serve as his vice president. He became the presumptive Autonomous nominee when Sanders ended his campaign in early April, though he too found himself facing new allegations of sexual assault, this time from a former aide named Tara Reade.

On August xi, 2020, Biden announced Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate. "I have the bang-up laurels to announce that I've picked Kamala Harris — a fearless fighter for the petty guy, and ane of the country's finest public servants — equally my running mate," Biden said. "Dorsum when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Boyfriend. I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I'1000 proud now to have her every bit my partner in this entrada."

In August, Biden officially became the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.

Presidential Debates With Trump

The much-anticipated first presidential debate between Biden and Trump on September 29, 2020, was a messy affair marked by frequent interruptions and heated discussions that quickly spiraled off-topic. A flustered Biden called his opponent a "clown," simply he also managed to get in several shots at the president's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and emphatically presented his views on constabulary enforcement and climate change.

A second fence was scheduled for October xv, but afterward Trump declined to do a virtual debate, town halls for both candidates were scheduled instead.

With microphones frequently muted during the third debate on October 22, Biden faced fewer interruptions as he articulated his positions on health care, immigration overhaul and greenish jobs. He also again unloaded on the president for his coronavirus direction and policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border, drawing a articulate stardom betwixt their styles with the proclamation that "America'due south character is on the ballot."

2020 Election Win

With several states counting post-in ballots well past the shut of polling places on Nov 3, 2020, the race remained too tight to call into the next solar day. However, the tide began shifting in Biden'southward favor with the announcements of his victories in Wisconsin and Michigan, along with reports of his leads in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. Meanwhile, President Trump launched a series of lawsuits that declared voter fraud and sought to halt the counting in battlefield states.

On November seven, 2020, 4 days after election day, Biden was declared every bit the 46th president-elect after winning Pennsylvania. Along with earning a record 81 one thousand thousand-plus votes, the presentlyhoped-for 78-year-one-time was fix to go the oldest president in the nation's history.

"America, I'm honored that you accept chosen me to lead our great country," Biden tweeted. "The work alee of us will be hard, simply I promise y'all this: I will exist a President for all Americans — whether you lot voted for me or not. I will go on the religion that you take placed in me."

On Dec 14, 2020, all 538 electors in the Electoral College cast their vote, formalizing Biden'due south victory over President Trump in the 2022 presidential election. Biden received 306 votes and Trump received 232. Although he moved forward with the choice of Cabinet members and other staffers, Biden initially institute his transition efforts thwarted by Emily White potato, head of the General Services Administration, who refused to release federal funds for the procedure until November 23.

Capitol Siege

On January 6, 2021, after the beginning of a congressional session to formalize the Electoral College results, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building and overwhelmed the police, forcing lawmakers to evacuate for their safety.

Biden before long delivered a speech in which he pleaded for Trump to assistance put an stop to the chaos.

"At their all-time the words of a president can inspire. At their worst, they can incite," he said. "Therefore, I telephone call on President Trump to keep national television at present to fulfill his oath and defend the constitution and demand an end to this siege."

Post-obit the violence that resulted in more than 80 arrests and five deaths, the congressional session resumed and continued well past midnight, with Vice President Mike Pence formally announcing Biden's presidential win simply after three:forty a.m. on January vii.

Inauguration

Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, 2021. "This is America'southward day. This is democracy'due south day. A day of history and hope. Of renewal and resolve. Through a crucible for the ages America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge. Today, we gloat the triumph not of a candidate, simply of a cause, the cause of democracy. The will of the people has been heard and the will of the people has been heeded. We accept learned over again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, commonwealth has prevailed," he said in the opening of his inaugural address.

Kickoff 100 Days

Speedily getting to work, President Biden signed a flurry of executive orders over his first few days in office. Among those that reversed the policies of his predecessor, he re-committed the United States to the Paris Agreement, overturned the ban that targeted travelers from Muslim-majority nations, pulled funding for the structure of a wall along the Mexican border, revoked the allow for the Keystone Twoscore pipeline and allowed transgender people to once more serve in the military.

With the country yet reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, the president enacted an expanded enrollment period for the federal health insurance marketplace and urged Congress to deed on a coronavirus relief package. This came to fruition with the March passage of the American Rescue Plan, which gave the greenish low-cal for another round of stimulus payments and extended unemployment benefits.

After announcing that all Americans above the age of eighteen would be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine past April nineteen, Biden celebrated the administering of 200 one thousand thousand doses two days later, ahead of his target date of May ane. Meanwhile, he sought to necktie the nation's economical recovery to proposals for a $2 trillion American Jobs Programme, which aimed for long-overdue infrastructure investments, and the $1.8 trillion American Families Programme, which promised to establish publicly-funded preschools and a comprehensive family and medical exit program.

On the foreign policy front end, the president in mid-April announced that the American armed services presence in Afghanistan would exist withdrawn by September 11, 2021. Shortly afterward, he hit Russia with extensive sanctions for a hacking performance that breached multiple U.South. federal agencies.

When it came to border control, withal, the president saw fewer positive results. Although he launched a task forcefulness to reunite displaced children with their parents and pledged to end the "metering" that limited the number of asylum seekers, a record surge of migrants thwarted attempts to ease the overcrowded detention centers at the U.S.-Mexico edge. Additionally, Biden initially reneged on a promise to raise the Trump-era cap of xv,000 refugees for the year, before political pushback forced him to reconsider his stance.

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Source: https://www.biography.com/us-president/joe-biden

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