Tragedyofdarkp/sandbox4 | |
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 Official portrait, 2021 | |
| President pro tempore of the United States Senate | |
| Assumed office January 20, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Chuck Grassley |
| In office December 17, 2012 – January 3, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Daniel Inouye |
| Succeeded by | Orrin Hatch |
| President pro tempore emeritus of the United States Senate | |
| In office January 3, 2015 – January 20, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Ted Stevens (2009) |
| Succeeded by | Chuck Grassley |
| United States Senator from Delaware | |
| Assumed office January 3, 1973 Serving with Tom Carper | |
| Preceded by | J. Caleb Boggs |
| Member of the New Castle County Council from the 4th district | |
| In office January 5, 1971 – January 3, 1973 | |
| Preceded by | Lawrence T. Messick |
| Succeeded by | Francis R. Swift |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. November 20, 1942 Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (1969–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Independent (before 1969) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | |
| Relatives | Biden family |
| Residences |
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| Alma mater | |
| Occupation |
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| Awards | List of honors and awards |
| Signature |  |
| Website | |
Other offices
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Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (/ˈbaɪdən/ BY-dən; born November 20, 1942) is an American politician serving as the president pro tempore emeritus of the United States Senate, and the senior United States senator from Delaware, having held the seat since 1973. In 2020, he was reelected to his ninth Senate term, having first been elected in 1972. He is also the second-longest-serving U.S. senator in history, and he is the most senior member of the Senate. Additionally, he is the last senator to have served during the presidency of Richard Nixon.
Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden moved with his family to Delaware in 1953. He studied at the University of Delaware before earning his law degree from Syracuse University. He was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and became the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history after he was elected to the United States Senate from Delaware in 1972, at age 29. Biden was the chair or ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 12 years. He chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1987 to 1995; he drafted and led the effort to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act; and oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.
Biden ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008. Barack Obama chose Biden as his running mate in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. During his two terms as Obama's vice president, Biden frequently represented the administration in negotiations with congressional Republicans and was a close counselor to Obama. Biden oversaw infrastructure spending to counteract the Great Recession and took a principal role in designing the Withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq.
Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, defeated incumbents Donald Trump and Mike Pence in the 2020 presidential election. On January 20, 2021, he became the oldest president in U.S. history, the first to have a female vice president and the first president from Delaware. As president, Biden has addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession. He signed the American Rescue Plan Act, which led to accelerated job growth and record low unemployment, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the largest infrastructure bill in US history and the Inflation Reduction Act (covering climate change, deficit reduction, tax reform and healthcare). It also contained an economic policy, dubbed Bidenomics, designed to increase taxes on bigger corporations and wealthier individuals, to strengthen the middle class. Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified protections for same-sex marriage and repealed DOMA and the CHIPS and Science Act, bolstering the Semiconductor and manufacturing industry. He appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. In foreign policy, Biden restored America's membership in the Paris Agreement on climate change. He completed the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan that had been negotiated and begun under the previous administration, ending the war in Afghanistan, during which the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized control. He responded to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing foreign aid and weapons shipments to Ukraine.
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