Things you might not know about Joe Biden
As he was growing up, his family went through tough times: his father had trouble finding steady work, so the family had to move back in with Joe’s grandparents.
His father used to say “Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up”. Joe has kept these words in mind, and in his speeches.
He was a popular kid, but got into a few fights, especially if he was teased for his stutter, which he struggled to conquer by reciting over and over in front of a mirror.
In high school, Joe led a perennially losing team to an undefeated season.
He met his first wife Neilia Hunter during a spring break trip. “I fell ass over tin cup in love — at first sight”.
Although he found law school to be “the biggest bore in the world”, and was ranked as one of the worst students in his class, he graduated from Syracuse University College of Law in 1968.
In 1972, Biden’s campaign had virtually no money and was given no chance of winning against longtime political figure Senator James Caleb Boggs. Yet, he was elected to the Senate, and became the sixth-youngest senator in American history.
A month after Joe Biden won the race, as they were out shopping for a Christmas tree, his wife Neilia and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car crash that left Joe alone with his two boys, Beau and Hunter.
He considered resigning to take care of his sons but ultimately decided to hold on to his Senate seat. He was sworn in at one son’s bedside in the hospital.
To come home every day from Washington and be there for his sons, Biden commuted by Amtrak train for 3 hours each day. He knew every conductor on the train.
In the 1990s, Joe Biden wrote the Violence Against Women Act. It set the national agenda on criminalizing domestic violence. Biden has said, “I consider the Violence Against Women Act the single most significant legislation that I’ve crafted during my 35-year tenure in the Senate.”
Biden was also a long-time member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Although he was often at odds with Republicans as well as members of his own party, he received bipartisan praise for his foreign policies.
During the presidential campaign, Obama’s team referred to these blunders as “Joe bombs”.
Biden’s elder son, Beau, became Delaware Attorney General and an Army Judge Advocate who served in Iraq. In 2015, Beau died at the age of 46 from brain cancer.
Joe Biden is known for speaking his mind. During a debate, he made fun of Republican presidential candidate, Rudolph W. Giuliani, by cracking that “there’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11.”
Biden was banned from communion by his own Catholic Diocese for supporting abortion rights.
The U.S. Secret Service codename given to Biden is “Celtic”, referencing his Irish roots.
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