
Joe Biden is now President-elect of the United States.
The former Vice President was declared the winner of the November 3 election on Saturday local time, after more than four days of counting and uncertainty. His opponent, President Donald Trump, has not yet conceded and is claiming the election was fraudulent.
But Biden has hit the ground running, stating his intention to overturn a number of Trump laws (the 'Muslim ban', the transgender military ban and rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, to name a few) and will announce a COVID-19 task force on Monday (Tuesday AEST).
The promised policy changes have been a consistent line throughout Biden's campaign. And so has his experience with grief and hardship.
Because while before now, many of us knew the 77-year-old as Barack Obama's friendly sidekick, in private, Biden's life has been full of tragedy.
Then-US President Barack Obama with Joe Biden in 2017. Image: Getty. Joe Biden was still a law student when he married Neilia Hunter in 1966. Together they had three children: Beau, Robert and Naomi.
In 1972, he won the US Senate election in Delaware, despite seemingly having no chance of winning. It was his biggest professional success so far, and his beautiful young family were thought to have attracted voters.
But just weeks later, while his wife was purchasing a Christmas tree with their children, she was killed in a car accident, along with their youngest child, one-year-old Naomi.
Top Comments
I read a lot about Joe Biden when he first moved into the White House and as sad as his life has been, it has made him the rare oddity, a humble but honest politician. If ever there was a Vice President that represented his country with dignity, intelligence and and diplomacy, it was this man. His understanding of what the average American family goes through is not just rhetoric. The friendship between himself and the President, is that of Brothers in arms who faced the ongoing conflict, but had each others back. The respect in which he is held by government officials of many countries is just another sign of the man being a quiet, but effective man of honour.