The 47th vice president, the Democratic presidential candidate, the 46th president of the United States – Joe Biden would be the oldest president (at his inauguration, at age 78) to serve the office in the history of United States of America.
President-elect Biden has been a senator for 36 years and a vice-president for 8. Let’s take a look at 8 interesting facts about Joe Biden, who had been trying to be the US President for the past 30 years…
8 Burning Questions About President-Elect Joe Biden. Answered
1) Does Biden Stutter?
Joe Biden dealt with stuttering throughout his childhood. At school, he was humiliated and bullied by his classmates. They called him ‘bye-bye’ when he attempted to say his last name, or ‘Dash’ as it sounded like Morse code when he stammered. He would recite Irish poetry in front of a mirror for hours and practice public speaking holding pebbles in his mouth to overcome the impediment. Though Biden refers to his struggle with stuttering as the single most defining thing in his life, he didn’t let the stutter define who he was. He still catches himself stuttering when he finds himself really tired.
2) How Did Biden Lose His First Wife Neilia And Son Beau?
Biden lost his first wife, Neilia Hunter, and infant daughter, Naomi, in a car accident in 1972 – just weeks after he was elected to the U.S. Senate at the age of 29, making him the fifth youngest senator in history. Neilia’s car struck a tractor trailer while the family was out Christmas shopping. Biden’s sons, Beau and Hunter, were severely injured but survived. He was sworn into the Senate in Beau’s hospital room. In 2015, tragedy struck again when 46-year-old Beau died of brain cancer. He served as the 44th Attorney General of Delaware and a Major in the Delaware Army National Guard.
3) How Many Times Has Biden Run For President?
Third time’s a charm for Mr. Biden who first ran for president in 1987. But he dropped out over a plagiarism scandal. In 2008, he ran for president a second time. Though he dropped out again as he could secure less than 1% of the vote at the all-important Iowa caucus, Biden was selected by Barack Obama as his running mate. In 2016, Biden declined to run after Beau’s death from cancer.
Incidentally, Biden, who didn’t have enough money to pay the bill on the couple’s second date at a restaurant (Neilia slipped him $20 under the table), had told Neilia’s mother (when she asked what he wanted to do for a living) he intended to become president of the United States. On November 7, 2020, Biden won the presidential election over Donald Trump with a clear majority.
4) How Was Biden’s Relationship With Obama?
Though Barack Obama and Joe Biden had the world’s greatest bromance, tensions lingered between the two statesmen. If Biden infuriated Obama by publicly declaring his support for gay marriage as Obama’s re-election campaign was ramping up in 2012, Obama nudged Biden to stay out of the 2016 presidential race arguing Hillary Clinton had the best chance of winning the election.
Watch: Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s Bromance
In his memoir, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, he couldn’t hide the deep hurt over how Obama embraced Hillary Clinton as his successor or how he too often let his head get in the way. “Sometimes I thought he was deliberate to a fault,” Biden wrote.
5) What’s Joe Biden’s Net Worth?
Unlike the outgoing President Donald Trump, Joe Biden was not born into riches. When he was 10, the Biden family moved to Delaware (where they lived in a 3-bed, 1½-half-bath tract house) after his father got a job at a car dealership. Today, Biden is a millionaire with a net worth of $9 million; in 2009, Joe Biden’s net worth was less than $30,000. In 2014, Joe Biden was listed as one of America’s least wealthy government officials, ranking 577 of 581. In challenging Donald Trump to release his tax returns, Biden claimed that he was among the poorest in government: “I entered as one of the poorest men in Congress, left one of the poorest men in government — in Congress and as vice president”. Biden’s presidential salary will be $400,000 per year.
6) Does Joe Biden Back Down?
No. Joe Biden is an athlete. Though his classmates mocked him by calling him “dash”, Biden was indeed the fastest person on the football field. He was a standout receiver in high school and played on the University of Delaware’s freshman team. He played wide receiver and halfback on Archmere’s undefeated 1960 football team, catching an impressive 19 touchdown passes. “As much as I lacked confidence in my ability to communicate verbally, I always had confidence in my athletic ability,” he wrote in his memoir Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics.
Watch: Joe Biden on the Football Field
Biden, who neither smokes nor drinks alcohol (calling the vices as “crutches”), said in a 1970 interview: “I use football as a crutch, and motorcycle jumping and skiing … but those are crutches over which I have some control.”
7) Does Biden Love Cars?
Joe Biden is a petrol head. For his senior prom, Biden borrowed a 7000-mile Chrysler 300D. Later, he bought a ’51 Studebaker, a 1952 Plymouth convertible, a 1956 Chevy and a 100,000-mile Mercedes 190SL. A self-described ‘car guy’, Biden still owns a 1967 Corvette Stingray – a wedding gift from his father. His current DC home reportedly has parking for over 20 cars and a driveway that’s about 1700 feet long.
Watch: Joe Biden does a burnout in his Corvette Stingray
He expressed his irritation about not being able to drive in his role as the U.S. vice president in a 2011 interview to Car and Driver magazine: “The Secret Service won’t let me drive. I’m not allowed to drive anything. It’s the one thing I hate about this job. I’m serious.” A gearhead and auto enthusiast, Biden receives notifications from Car and Driver magazine on his iPhone.
8) What (Who) Is Biden’s Greatest Political Asset?
America’s second lady for eight years and an educator for decades, Dr. Jill Biden, Biden’s second wife is his greatest political asset. In 1975, Jill and Joe met on a blind date arranged by Joe’s brother. Though their connection was instant, he had to propose to her five times before she finally accepted. The couple wed in 1977 at the United Nations chapel in New York City in an intimate wedding.
Jill for years has been a trusted advisor to her 77-year-old husband, who proudly refers to himself as ‘Jill Biden’s husband’. As a Second Lady, she led a White House effort to advocate for community colleges and co-founded the Joining Forces initiative with the First Lady (Michelle Obama) to support military families. She could be the first First Lady to have a full-time job – as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College – outside the White House. She has already made history as the first Second Lady to hold a paying job while in Office.
