Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (Scranton, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1942), better known as Joe Biden, is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the 46th President of the United States since January 20, 2021. He served as the 47th Vice President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, during the Barack Obama administration. In addition, he was a senator from Delaware between 1973 and 2009.
Biden was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania and New Castle County, Delaware. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Delaware before entering Syracuse University School of Law, where he obtained a Juris Doctor degree. He became a lawyer in 1969 and was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970. He was elected to the United States Senate from Delaware in 1972, becoming the sixth youngest senator in American history. Biden was a senior member and later chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He opposed the Gulf War in 1991, but supported the expansion of the NATO alliance in Eastern Europe and its intervention in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. He supported the resolution authorizing the Iraq war in 2002, but he opposed the US troop surge in 2007. He also served as chairman of the Senate Justice Committee from 1987 to 1995, dealing with drug policy, crime prevention, and civil liberties issues. Biden led efforts to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act, and oversaw the controversial U.S. Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.
Biden was reelected six times to the United States Senate and was the fourth-longest senator when he resigned after winning the vice presidency alongside Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Obama and Biden were reelected in 2012. As vice president, Biden oversaw infrastructure spending in 2009 to counter the Great Recession. His negotiations with Republican lawmakers helped the Obama administration pass a number of laws, including the Tax Relief Act of 2010, which resolved a fiscal stalemate; the 2011 Budget Control Law, which resolved a debt ceiling crisis; and the US Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which addressed a looming tax gulf. In foreign policy, Biden led efforts to pass the new START treaty between the United States and Russia; supported military intervention in Libya, and helped shape US policy toward Iraq through troop withdrawals in 2011. After the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre, Biden led the Task Force on Gun Violence, created to address the causes of gun violence in the United States. In October 2015, Biden announced that he would not contest the presidency in the 2016 election. In January 2017, Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction.
Biden announced his bid for the 2020 presidency on April 25, 2019, and in June 2020 he reached the threshold of 1991 delegates, necessary to secure the Democratic Party nomination. On August 11, 2020, Biden announced US Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate in that year's presidential election.
He won the 2020 presidential election, defeating then-President Donald Trump, who was seeking reelection. Arrived on December 14, he was confirmed by the Electoral College as president-elect. On January 20, 2021, Biden was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States.
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