Daily US Times: Third time lucky is an apt phrase to describe the phenomenal rise of 46th President-elect Joe Robinette Biden Jr, the full name of Joe Biden, a veteran in US politics for nearly 50 years, from being one of the youngest senators in history to the oldest American president.
The 77-year-old six-term Democratic senator and former vice president of two terms, who triumphed over incumbent Republican President Donald Trump on November 3’s presidential election, ran twice unsuccessfully for president – in 1988 and 2008.
The presidential dreams that the veteran leader from the state of Delaware had harboured since childhood seemed all but over for a third time until he won South Carolina’s Democratic Party primary on February 29, forcing most rivals out of the race and making one of the most dramatic comebacks in American political history.
Joe Biden has spent five decades in Washington and served as Vice President under Barack Obama’s vice presidency, capitalised on that experience to portray himself as a tested leader and a better alternative to Donald Trump.
While accepting the Democratic presidential nomination in August, Biden pledged to restore the soul of America, and be an ally of the light, not the darkness.
Biden defeated 74-year-old Trump, a Republican, in the bitterly fought presidential election in decades, becoming the oldest person ever to win the White House.
In his victory speech, President-elect Joe Biden pledged to make the country united as he called it ‘a time to heal in America’.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1942 to a Catholic family, he studied at the University of Delaware and then earned a law degree from Syracuse University in 1968.
In 1972, he was first elected and then served six terms as a senator for Delaware.
He was elected at the age of just 29, became one of the youngest people ever elected to the US Senate, and his age at his first election contributed to him being consistently ranked as one of the least wealthy members in the Senate.
In 1988 and 2008, Biden unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination. But he finaly secured his party’s backing this year with strong support among Black voters.
Known for blunt talk, the next president of the United States speaks openly about his family’s tragedies, including the 1972 car crash that killed his 13-month-old daughter Naomi and first wife Neilia, while his sons Beau and Hunter were critically injured in the accident.
In 1975, Biden met his second wife Jill Jacobs, and they married in June 1977. In 1981, they blessed with daughter, Ashley.
Beau was an Iraq war veteran who had served as Delaware’s attorney general. He died of a brain tumour at the age of 46. Biden’s son Hunter struggled with drug issues as an adult.
In 1988, Biden himself has suffered two brain aneurysms. He has referred to his personal losses on the election campaign and declared: Healthcare is personal to me.
In October, the Democrat pointed to his son’s terminal diagnosis and said: I can’t fathom what would have happened if the insurance companies had the power to say last few months, you’re on your own.
When he declared his White House race in the last year, he faced allegations from former staffer Tara Reade, who said she felt uncomfortable with Biden during her time in his Senate office in the 90s.
In March this year, she also accused him of sexual assault in 1993. Mr Biden and his campaign have strongly denied the allegation.
Biden voiced support for LGBT rights during his tenure, calling himself absolutely comfortable with the idea of same-sex marriage.
He also led the Gun Violence Task Force in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012.
He was awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, presented by Obama days before he left office in 2017
His former boss Barack Obama officially endorsed his in April. Mr Obama has praised him, saying, “Biden is my brother. I love Joe Biden. And he will be a great president and he treats everyone with dignity and with respect”.
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