Joe Biden, former Vice President of the United States, will face Trump in the 3 November election. His private life, political career and electoral programme.
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My father always told me that a man's strength doesn't depend on how many times he gets knocked down, but on how quickly he manages to get back up.
Joe Biden
United States, December 1972. Christmas is two weeks away. Traditional carols ring out everywhere and the air carries the scent of pumpkin pie, Christmas pudding and eggnog. Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. – known as Joe – has just turned thirty and fulfilled his dream, winning election as a Democratic Party senator representing the state of Delaware. His life could not be going better.
But everything changes when a drunk driver decides to place himself between that rising young man and his happiness, crashing into the car carrying his wife Neilia and their three children. She dies along with their youngest daughter, just 13 months old. His two sons, Hunter and Beau, survive. And Joe, who until that moment has devoted his entire self to politics, finds himself with a broken heart, having to raise them alone. He even considers giving up his career. But his friends support him. And, mindful of his father's words, he somehow manages to get back up. He raises those children with all the love he has left.
Joe Biden was born in 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, into a modest Catholic family. He earned a degree in Political Science from the University of Delaware, in Newark, and a law degree from Syracuse University, in the state of New York. He was admitted to the bar in 1969, before being elected senator three years later, when he was barely thirty years old.
During his term he held prominent positions: from 1987 to 1995 he served as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in 2001 he then took on the prestigious role of chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and from 2007 to 2009 he also chaired the Congressional Caucus on International Narcotics Control.
He then went on to be elected Vice President of the United States of America and remained at Barack Obama's side until 2017. "The first African American who is articulate and bright and clean, and also a nice-looking guy": that is how Biden described him, having become known for his "gaffe-prone and ill-advised" remarks – as Francesco Costa, who wrote Questa è l'America, points out.
Listen to "S04E06. La battaglia della vita di Joe Biden" on Spreaker.
As his prospective Vice President, "Uncle Joe" has chosen Kamala Harris, a progressive prosecutor who, if elected alongside Biden on 3 November, would become the first Black woman to hold that office. The candidate has received the backing of Bernie Sanders, the last challenger to withdraw from the Democratic primaries, of Barack Obama, and of activist Greta Thunberg. Below we look in depth at some points of his electoral programme, which picks up many of the issues addressed during the Obama presidency.
How he wants to save the planet: by promoting the clean energy revolution and climate justice. In his view, by harnessing the talents that populate the United States and unparalleled American innovation, it will be possible to transform the threat of global warming into an opportunity to revive the energy sector and drive economic growth. He aims to make America an "energy superpower". He will use the public procurement system to achieve the goal of powering the nation entirely on renewable energy and to promote the uptake of electric vehicles. The transition will begin with government offices.
He will impose strict limits on methane emissions, a greenhouse gas that, although released into the atmosphere in smaller quantities, is 86 times more "potent" than CO₂. He will seek to reduce air pollution produced by the transport sector by ensuring that the provisions of the Clean Air Act are implemented and improved upon. He will work towards the United States achieving net zero emissions by 2050. He will require public companies to disclose climate risks and greenhouse gas emissions in their operations and supply chains. He will protect protected areas that Trump has put at risk, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
What he thinks about firearms and bombs: the National Rifle Association is the enemy. This is the organisation that in the United States advocates on behalf of firearms owners. Biden has faced it down twice, emerging victorious both times. In 1993 he championed in Congress the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, one of the most important gun control laws, which established the system of background checks that buyers must undergo to verify their suitability to own a firearm. In 1994 he secured, together with Senator Dianne Feinstein, the passage of a ten-year ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines. He promises that as president he will not be afraid to face the NRA again.
In 2002, however, he was among the 77 senators who gave George W. Bush authorisation to use force in Iraq. A choice he is still trying to explain. A decision that would reveal his true nature, as journalists Katie Glueck and Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times write: "That of the dealmaker, prone to bipartisan compromise." A quality admired by his supporters, which his opponents argue has instead clouded his judgement on several occasions.
No parent should live in a world where their child has access to weapons and ammunition.
Joe Biden
His view of the current US healthcare system: rebalanced by Barack Obama's intervention. Biden's ambition is to build on Obamacare — the most significant healthcare reform in the United States, enacted in 2010 — and add further elements: giving every citizen the option to choose public as well as private healthcare, not just certain categories; increasing the value of tax credits to lower premiums and extend coverage to more workers; granting middle-class families a premium tax credit to help them pay for coverage. He has also included in his electoral programme a plan to combat violence against women.
What he says about immigrants: most Americans can find, by tracing their family history, a choice. The choice to leave everything familiar behind in search of new opportunities and a new life. For Biden, immigration is essential to defining the identity of the United States, the country's core values and its aspirations for the future. And this must be reflected in immigration policy. That is why Obama's deputy would like to pick up where things left off, by restoring the "deferral for childhood arrivals": a measure that allowed the deportation of minors who had entered the US illegally to be deferred by two years or more, which Trump had scrapped.
The Super Tuesday is the most important date in the United States electoral calendar. This year, held on 3 March, citizens in 14 states and the inhabitants of American Samoa voted simultaneously. For Biden it was a real success. "They don't call it Super Tuesday for nothing," he exclaimed as he took to the stage in California. Although he usually prepares his speeches carefully because of the stutter he has, he let spontaneity colour his voice as his eyes shone with enthusiasm. "Things are going really well. Just a few days ago this campaign was declared dead, but then with South Carolina we came back. Now I want to thank the other states that voted for us. We're alive, and I'm sure our campaign will send Donald Trump packing," he declared.
"We need you. Turnout has to be high. That will give us the ability to do extraordinary things. Ours is a bold, progressive movement that is proposing affordable healthcare, without surprise bills; that wants to guarantee everyone access to hospitals. We will give the gun lobby nothing. While we will fight climate change: I will start by bringing the United States back into the Paris Agreement, but that will only be the beginning. The quality of education will no longer depend on the state you live in; there will be higher wages for teachers, there will be a reduction in the cost of college. It wasn't Wall Street that built this country, but you: the middle class."
According to Fivethirtyeight, an agency that focuses on the analysis of opinion polls, politics, economics and sport and is one of the most authoritative sources in the field of forecasting, Biden is currently the favourite. The polls are also clear: he is in the lead with over 50 per cent of preferences.
