Presidents of the United States: Joe Biden, a life of tragedy and service to country

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series of profiles taking a closer look at US presidents ahead of the 2024 presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Tragedy and service.

Those have been the defining themes of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr’s life.

Early life

The 46th President of the United States was born on November 20, 1942 in the town of Scranton.

Biden grew up in Pennsylvania in a large Catholic family.

He worked as a prosecutor before diving into politics. In 1972, he would become Senator from Pennsylvania – a post he would hold for nearly four decades.

By now, he was married to Neilia Hunter – with whom he would have three children. But tragedy struck soon. Biden’s wife and infant daughter were killed in an accident, while he and his sons survived. Biden briefly considered ending his political career but later changed his mind.

Senate career

Biden had a stellar career in the Senate – serving on multiple high-profile councils including as chair of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee.

But he always had one eye set on the ultimate prize – the US presidency.

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He first ran for president in 1988. However, his campaign went up in flames after it was discovered that chunks of his stump speech were plagiarised from a British politician. That embarrassing episode was enough to keep him away until 2008 when he ran for the US’ highest office again. This time, it was simply a failure to launch – Biden threw in the towel after coming fifth in Iowa.

Obama’s VP

Meanwhile, a young, charismatic Black man named Barack Obama would take US politics by storm with his lofty rhetoric and soaring oratory.

Biden, tapped to be Obama’s running mate, served him faithfully and with good grace – a fact Black voters never forgot.      

In 2015, his oldest son Beau, who had served in Iraq, died of brain cancer. The grief-stricken Biden, who had served two terms as vice-president chose not to run. Instead, he endorsed Hillary.

He would later say it was a decision he ‘regretted every day’.

Biden returned to the rough and tumble of presidential politics after watching the chaos of the Trump years.

Becoming President Biden  

In 2020, Biden decided to go for it. Yet again, his campaign got off to an extremely poor start. Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada all rejected Biden’s candidacy. A priest was hovering over his campaign, waiting to conduct its last rites.

Then, North Carolina happened and everything changed.

Black voters, a powerhouse within the Democratic Party, overwhelmingly threw their support behind Biden. So did some prominent African-American politicians including Jim Clyburn.

Meanwhile, the Democratic establishment, including many of his opponents, were eagerly searching for an alternative to Bernie Sanders. They dropped out and rallied behind Biden.

Biden would essentially wrap things up on Super Tuesday and secure the Democratic nomination. Now, it was Biden’s turn to emulate his former boss. He would pick Kamala Harris, a woman of colour, as his running mate.

The 2020 presidential campaign against Trump was conducted during the height of COVID-19.  Though Trump harangued Biden for ‘holing up in a basement,’ voters had grown tired of his antics. They handed Biden a decisive win over the incumbent president.

Biden’s term as president

Biden’s first act as president was to try to heal the divisions that were on full display in the aftermath of the insurrection on the US Capitol carried out by Trump supporters.

As president, Biden passed the historic Inflation Reduction Act and capped the cost of drugs like insulin at $35.

The economy too has been humming – 14.8 million jobs were added in his first three years and unemployment remained under four per cent. Yet, many voters, citing Biden’s age, said they did not want him to run again for president.

Exit and legacy

Biden defied all calls to step down until a disastrous debate performance made his re-election campaign untenable. He stepped aside – the first incumbent to do so since Lydon Johnson – and swiftly endorsed his vice-president, Harris.

History will judge Biden as the man who beat Trump at the polls – and depending on how things go in November, helped America turn the page to a new era.

With inputs from agencies