Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is an American politician.
He is the 46th and current president of the United States.
A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 under Barack Obama and represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009.
Born in 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden, Jr. is the first of four children of Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden and Joseph Robinette Biden, Sr.
In 1953, the Biden family moved to Claymont, Delaware.
President Biden graduated from the University of Delaware and Syracuse Law School and served on the New Castle County Council.
At age 29, President Biden became one of the youngest people ever elected to the United States Senate. Just weeks after his Senate election, his first wife Neilia Hunter Biden and daughter Naomi were killed, and sons Hunter and Beau were critically injured, in an auto accident.
As Chairman or Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 12 years, Biden played a pivotal role in shaping U.S. foreign policy. He was at the forefront of issues and legislation related to terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, post-Cold War Europe, the Middle East, Southwest Asia, and ending apartheid.
In a ceremony at the White House, President Obama awarded Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction — the nation’s highest civilian honor.
On April 25, 2019, Biden announced his candidacy for President of the United States.
Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris defeated incumbent president Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence in the 2020 presidential election.
He is the oldest president and the first to have a female vice president.
Joe Biden is 79 years old as of 2021.