JOE BIDEN ELECTED PRESIDENT: THE PROFILE
Joe Biden has conquered Pennsylvania and is therefore mathematically the new elected president of the United States of America. But who is the 46th Democratic president?
Joe Biden has had to get up many times and find the will to move forward and, somehow, his comeback on Trump in the election for president of the United States of America seems like the perfect summary of an entire existence. But it was precisely the political errors and the deep personal scars that shaped his character and conditioned his conduct, both as a statesman and as an American citizen. Joe Biden's life is not just a series of ups and downs, as that of an ordinary person could be, it is a continuous alternation of great successes and terrible tragedies.
Joe Biden represents the exact opposite of Donald Trump: as the former is vulnerable, the latter is pompous. As this review of Biden's biography written by famous New Yorker pen Evan Osnos relates, it was a particular episode in his life that made him clearly understand that there was something people wanted from him, even as a politician: to do them. feel at ease with suffering, with being, in fact, vulnerable. This incident was the death of their first child, Beau, an Iraq war veteran who passed away in 2015 from a brain tumor. But it would take Biden some time to fully understand it.
Biden was born poor and was not rich for a long time. He lived his childhood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where his father had settled to work as a car salesman, after a series of economic failures. He shared a single bedroom with his three brothers and his uncle. A problem has conditioned him since he was a child: stuttering. As a child, Biden suffered a lot for this reason. To avoid the embarrassment of stopping to read in class in front of his classmates, he learned entire pages of the book by heart. Now he is able to control this defect, but every now and then it jams. The point is, he worked hard to correct himself.
When he met his first wife's mother, Neilia, the future mother-in-law asked a very young Joe how he planned to make a living. He replied that he would become President of the United States.
Unfortunately, Neilia was unable to witness the fulfillment of this dream, the realization of this old promise, which Biden has kept. The first wife died in a terrible car accident in 1972 with their daughter Naomi, who was just 13 months old. The Biden family station wagon, which carried a Christmas tree on the roof rack, was taken in full by a truck carrying corn and which had not respected the stop. The two sons were hospitalized because they were seriously injured. A few weeks earlier, Biden, who was only 29 at the time, had been elected to the Senate after beating a highly respected old Republican senator. He thus became the youngest elected senator in American history. In a moment, however, he found himself without his wife and daughter, he considered suicide and thought very seriously not to accept the position of senator to be next to the boys, orphans of their mother. It was a dark moment, from which he came out thanks to the support of relatives and friends who told him: "If you give up now, you will definitely collapse." After being exhorted even by Nixon, Biden swore to the Senate from his son Beau's hospital room. He decided to stay in Wilmington, Delaware, and commute every day to work in Washington and still go home every night to his children. Biden for 30 years took a train that took him to the capital in 75 minutes, developing such a deep relationship with the other passengers that he came to consider them a family. In fact, he has always organized barbecues at home for his fellow travelers and employees of the transport company. He remarried in 1977 to Jill Tracy Jacobs, an English teacher, following a blind date arranged by his brother.
Considered a progressive politician, especially in the field of civil rights, with a past as a lawyer, he gained decades of experience in the Senate, where thanks to his prestige, he has always taken part in the most relevant issues. He has charisma, he manages to be very empathetic, but he is also known for being a blunder machine.
In 1991, Biden, like the majority of Democrats in the Senate, voted against the intervention of a multinational force to end Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. In 1993, when he was on a diplomatic mission to the Balkans, he allegedly told Slobodan Milosevic in the face that he was a "damned war criminal." But, according to some of those present, he was actually more diplomatic. Biden has been criticized for two reasons in particular: supporting the 1994 Violent Crime Act, which led to mass arrests of black Americans deemed unfair; and for supporting the intervention in Iraq in 2002. He was present in the White House when then President George W. Bush signed the resolution authorizing the intervention in Iraq. After some time, Biden said that was "a mistake".
He tried three times to become head of the White House, in 1988 and 2007, and now at 77 he is the oldest president ever elected in US history. In 2016 it was Obama who made him desist, explaining that Hillary Clinton was the best choice. His son Beau made his father promise that he would still run for president.
Also known for being prolix and for giving, at times, rambling speeches, so much so that, as Politico recalls along with other significant events in his biography, Barack Obama once wrote to one of his collaborators on a piece of paper: «Shoot me. Now. ", While Biden lingered in a Senate hearing.
Everyone knows of the great friendship between Obama and his then deputy and of the deep mutual esteem. In 2017, President Obama awarded Biden the highest civilian honor in the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Earlier, in 2014, after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, Biden became Washington’s high-level emissary in Eastern Europe, particularly for Ukraine, then threatened by fear of Russian aggression. A period that ended up under the magnifying glass of Republicans during the fiery election campaign for the 2020 presidential elections. President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Biden of illegal behavior with Ukraine and China, when, as number two in the White House of Obama, he was in charge of relations with Kiev. The controversial role of Hunter Biden on the board of directors of Burisma, the largest Ukrainian natural gas company, a position he took in 2014 when his father Joe was Vice-president and head of relations with Kiev, as well as the allegations of corruption against the family Biden, were the arguments with which Trump and the Republicans attempted to undermine the Joe Biden presidential race.
It all stems from an article in the New York Post tabloid which insinuates that in an email in April 2015, a consultant from the Burisma company, Vadym Pozharskyi, thanked Hunter Biden for inviting him to meet his father. The New York Post has never confirmed that such a meeting took place. The leaders of Joe Biden's election campaign then admitted to Politico that an informal and very hasty meeting could have taken place, even if it does not appear in any official recording. However, no evidence has emerged that would confirm either Joe Biden's or Hunter Biden's illegality, and no confirmation that the "reckless" son tried to exploit his father's name and image for his own gain. Joe Biden said he never talked to his son about his business with Ukraine. Then, in an interview for The New Yorker, Hunter Biden said that only once did his father deal directly with him and said, "I hope you know what you are doing."
During a presidential debate, Trump also accused Hunter Biden of earning "billions of dollars" from a deal with a Chinese bank linked to the Beijing government, an accusation also made by some Republicans. Hunter Biden's attorney, George Mesires, explained that his client had made no gains from that investment. Emails, photographs, messages and other documents were provided by Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of the Biden brothers, and would prove that Hunter and James were involved in proposing a joint venture with a Chinese partner, the company CEFC China Energy. But all of this would have happened in 2017 when Joe Biden was no longer in office as Obama's deputy and, anyway, the deal never went through.
Finally, there is a very exciting story that Joe Biden told during an electoral rally, which is reprized by CNN. Biden said he saw a large eagle fly low over the surface of the lake near his home in Delaware soon after his son Beau died. He was in Iowa and was holding a rally in front of the crowd when he recalled this story, because at that moment a flock of eagles was approaching. Years earlier, the eagle had flown around the lake near home for quite a while and then left. Since then, Biden had never seen one again. Just as he spoke, an eagle alighted on the surface of the lake near the lawn where the crowd gathered to listen to him. Biden then said, moved: "Maybe it will be my Beau."
Former vice-president and Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden makes a statement on Ukraine corruption during a press conference at the Hotel Du Pont on September 24, 2019 in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo by Olivier Douliery / AFP)
Joe Biden, a portrait
We publish, courtesy of the publisher, an extract of America virus America by Maria Luisa Rossi Hawkins (Piemme)
Years before becoming the acclaimed front runner in the 2020 presidential campaign, in 1972 Biden is an ambitious young man who challenges veteran Republican Caleb Boggs for the post of Delaware representative in the Senate. Biden wins the election at just twenty-nine and begins his political adventure.
A few weeks later, the first major tragedy of his life breaks into his life. A truck overwhelms his wife and children while they are looking for the Christmas tree. Neilia Biden and her thirteen-month-old daughter die instantly, the other two children are miraculously saved. Marked by the tragedy, Biden plans to give up his position in the Senate to devote himself to the two and three year old children who survived the accident but then decides to go along with his ambitions by continuing the mandate for which he was elected. To stay close to his children, Biden continues to live in Wilmington, traveling to Washington DC by train every day. For thirty years, middle class Joe will commute, renamed Amtrak Joe for hours spent on the railroad that takes him to Washington. In 1975, his brother Frank arranges a date for Joe with a friend of his, Jill Tracy Jacobs; two years later, the two get married and in 1981 have a daughter, Ashley. Biden's baptism into the US Senate Justice Committee in 1981 comes with a hearing for the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, accused by lawyer Anita Hill of sexual harassment. Biden, along with a group of senators, defends Thomas by putting Anita Hill in the dock. The woman is defamed, called a sex maniac, considered a liar and a visionary. His credibility is destroyed as is his life and career. Anita Hill thus becomes the ante litteram symbol of the #MeToo movement. As early as the 1970s, Biden embraced another controversial position, opposing desegregation busing. This measure attempted to tackle segregation between blacks and whites by transporting African American students on school buses from one school district to another to allow them to attend white schools. Later, in the eighties, Biden approved the revision of the penal code with which the penalties for drug possession were increased and in '94 he signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, a bill that resulted in mass incarceration. in the early 1990s and mainly punishes the black and Hispanic communities. In 1987 Biden ran for the first time in the presidential elections. But he is again accused of plagiarism as in his college days. His final speech in the debate with his competitor is also copied in gestures by that of the British Labor politician Neil Kinnock. Biden must retire from the race and Michael Dukakis wins the Democratic primary, later defeated by George H.W. Bush. Shortly after, he was operated on on the brain due to two aneurysms that threaten to make him lose the use of speech by keeping him away from the Senate for seven months. Biden opposes the Gulf War in 1991 and negotiates the negotiation for a solution to the conflict in the Balkans. In 2002 he voted in favor of US military intervention in Iraq.
Biden was re-elected to the Senate six times, until 2008, when, twenty years after his first attempt, he ran again for the presidency of the United States and stumbled upon his proverbial gaffes. In an interview with the New York Observer, Biden refers to Obama as "the first bright, clean, good-looking African American who can speak well" offending the sensibilities of the African American community and the party. Despite the repentance and apology, people do not forget the unhappy phrase and Biden only comes fifth in the Iowa caucus, then retired from the race. The new Democratic Party star Barack Obama identifies him as the man to lean on, the politician to trust. His familiarity with Washington, with foreign policy and his appeal to the middle class make him the perfect companion and Obama chooses him as a running mate for his presidential adventure. In 2008 Biden enters the White House as the vice president of the United States. Through his ease with the institutions, Biden gives Obama the political experience that the young and clumsy Illinois senator lacks, revealing himself to be an indispensable resource for him. With thirty years in the Senate behind him, Biden knows the system and knows how to assert his contacts. It proved decisive in Congress in 2009 to impose the measures wanted by Obama in one of the most difficult moments in American history, that of the economic crisis. Biden also personally manages the Iraqi issue and in 2011 approved the American intervention in Libya. He is against the plan that leads to the killing of Bin Laden.
After Obama's second term, Biden becomes his designated successor. But in 2015, a few months before the start of the election campaign, Beau Biden, the first son of the vice president, died. At just forty-six, Delaware's attorney general and likely Democratic candidate for governor of the same state is struck down by brain cancer. Biden’s pain tears America apart, which participates in and witnesses his grief through his touching appearances on TV. Biden retires from the race and justifies his decision by attributing it to the pain of losing Beau. It supports the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, who had already organized her own electoral adventure by draining funds and resources from Biden's eventual candidacy. Obama, witness of this unusual handover, consoles him by awarding him the Freedom Medal of Honor, the highest American honor, publicly calling him "the best vice president America has ever had." In the eight years they spent together at the White House, the two form a relationship that transcends the professional one and leads to friendship: when the Bidens were about to sell their house to face their son's cancer treatment, Obama offered to help them. economically. At that moment, at the age of seventy-six, with an important and consummate political career in the secret chambers of Washington, Biden's presidential prospects seem to have definitely faded. But with the unstoppable Trump, a range of candidates among the most disparate and the threat of Sanders' socialism prevailing over moderate forces, in April 2019 Biden announced his candidacy by surprise. The electoral campaign was immediately marked by Ukrainagate, a scandal through which the Democrats try to reach Trump's impeachment.
Joe Biden is also involved in some way in the impeachment because he will have to explain the position of his son Hunter, who only thanks to his father’s contacts sits on the board of the Ukrainian gas company. "What Trump did is wrong," said Elizabeth Warren on the campaign trail, "but what Biden did should be illegal."
