Personal Life and Post-White House
Biden has been married to his second wife, Jill Biden, since 1977. The couple’s daughter, Ashley, was born in 1981. On May 30, 2015, Biden suffered another personal loss when his son Beau died at the age of 46, after battling brain cancer. “Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known,” Biden wrote in a statement about his son.
Following this tragedy, Biden considered a run for the presidency, but he put the speculation to rest in October 2015 when he announced that he would not seek the 2016 Democratic nomination.
In the White House Rose Garden with his wife Jill and President Obama by his side, Biden made his announcement, referring to his son’s recent death in his decision making: “As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I’ve said all along what I’ve said time and again to others, that it may very well be that the process by the time we get through it closes the window. I’ve concluded it has closed.”
Biden added: “While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation.”
On January 12, 2017, President Obama presented Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in a surprise ceremony at the White House.
Obama called Biden “the best vice president America’s ever had” and a “lion of American history,” and told him he was being honored for ‘‘faith in your fellow Americans, for your love of country and a lifetime of service that will endure through the generations.’’ Biden gave an emotional impromptu speech thanking the president, First Lady Michelle Obama, his wife Jill and his children.
As promised, Biden refused to remain quiet even after leaving office. Known for his opposition to Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, he occasionally surfaced to criticize the 45th president. At an October 2017 event he declared that Trump “doesn’t understand governance,” and the following month he blasted the White House incumbent for his seeming defense of white nationalist groups.
Additionally, Biden occasionally revealed his mixed feelings on bypassing the chance to run for president in 2016. In March 2017, he said he “could have won,” and in November, he elaborated on those thoughts in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“No woman or man should announce they’re running for president unless they can answer two questions,” he said. “One, do they truly believe they’re the most qualified person for that moment? I believed I was — but was I prepared to be able to give my whole heart, my whole soul, and all my intention to the endeavor? And I knew I wasn’t.”
A few weeks later, on the talk show The View, Biden had a much-publicized interaction with co-host Meghan McCain, whose dad, Senator John McCain, had been diagnosed with the same brain cancer that killed Beau Biden. When Meghan McCain became visibly upset while discussing the disease, the VP gently took her hand to console her, pointing out how Senator McCain inspired everyone with his courage. “There is hope,” he said. “And if anybody can make it, your dad [can].”
In an interview with Al Sharpton the following spring, Biden said he hadn’t ruled out running for president in 2020, though he still hadn’t recovered enough from his son’s death to devote himself to the effort. “I’m really hoping that some other folks step up,” he said. “I think we have some really good people. … I got to walk away knowing that it is — there’s somebody who can do it and can win because we’ve got to win. We’ve got to win in 2020.”
The results of a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll in June suggested that Democrats weren’t ready to let Biden walk away just yet, as he topped the poll with 32 percent of participants naming him their favorite for the party’s nomination in 2020. Hillary Clinton came in second at 18 percent, with Bernie Sanders finishing third at 16 percent.
While still contemplating a presidential run the following March, Biden faced a new problem when Lucy Flores, a former Nevada state assemblywoman, published an essay that described Biden inappropriately kissing her at a campaign event.
Biden responded with a statement in which he recalled the “countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort,” he offered to political allies over the years, adding, “And not once — never — did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention.”
A few days later, a former congressional aide named Amy Lappos came forward with her story of how Biden once made her uncomfortable at a fundraiser, indicating the issue would likely linger through a presidential campaign.
2020 Presidential Campaign
On April 25, 2019, Biden delivered the expected news that he was running for president in 2020.
In his 3 1/2-minute video announcement, the former VP referenced President Trump’s attempt to equate people on both sides of the violent, racially charged clash in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, saying he knew then that “the threat to our nation was unlike any I’d ever seen in my lifetime.”
Although he easily led most Democratic polls at the time he entered the race, Biden’s candidacy soon became a litmus test for a party with an increasingly progressive base. Underscoring the challenges of presenting himself as a moderate, Biden drew criticism for affirming his support of the Hyde Amendment, a 43-year-old measure that banned federal funding for abortions, before reversing his position shortly afterward.
During the first Democratic primary debate in late June, Biden again found his track record targeted when Kamala Harris took him to task for his opposition to busing as a means of integrating schools in the 1970s. He fared better in subsequent debates, in which he demonstrated his sound grasp of foreign policy and tied his accomplishments to those of President Obama.
Meanwhile, a new issue surfaced in September 2019 with the revelation that President Trump had pressured the Ukrainian government into investigating Biden and his son Hunter. This stemmed from Hunter’s former involvement with a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma Holdings, and Biden’s efforts to have the country’s prosecutor general at the time fired.
In a September 24 speech, Biden called Trump’s actions an “abuse of power” and said he would support impeachment if the president did not cooperate with Congress, a topic that took on additional urgency when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ignited impeachment proceedings that same day.
After Trump’s impeachment trial ended with his acquittal on February 5, 2020, Biden finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses and then fifth in the New Hampshire primary. But he rebounded with a resounding win in South Carolina at the end of the month, and continued his momentum by claiming the majority of delegates from Super Tuesday voting in early March, his surge driving most of his top competitors from the race.
During a one-on-one debate with Sanders in mid-March, Biden committed to nominating a woman to serve as his vice president. He became the presumptive Democratic nominee when Sanders ended his campaign in early April, though he also found himself facing new allegations of sexual assault, this time from a former aide named Tara Reade.
On August 11, 2020, Biden announced Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate. “I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked Kamala Harris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” Biden said. “Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Beau.
I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.”
In August, Biden officially became the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.
