History UsefulNotes / JoeBiden

Tragically, Biden has endured a number of painful personal losses during his public service. His [[HappilyMarried first wife]] Neilia and their baby daughter died in a car accident with both their young sons severely injured, shortly after his first election to the Senate in 1972 -- nearly leading him to resign before his career got started. Biden himself suffered a nearly-fatal brain aneurysm in 1988, then underwent ''another'' surgery for a second one. His older son Beau, a National Guard veteran and Attorney General of Delaware who seemed set to follow in his father's footsteps, died of brain cancer in 2015 towards the end of Biden's tenure as VP (leading him to shelve his tentative plans to run in the 2016 election), and his surviving son Hunter has had long-term struggles with both mental health and substance abuse, with Biden involved in his care and recovery. While Biden is normally seen as fairly mild-mannered, [[PapaWolf going after his family]] [[BerserkButton is certainly]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes not to be advised]]. Nor is questioning his Catholic faith, being (as previously mentioned) only the second Catholic president after JFK.[[note]]This appears to stem from the fact that Biden, like most Democrats, has long been pro-choice, despite the Catholic Church's famously pro-life stance, which has become an endless source for critics of either Biden and/or abortion to decry him as a "no true Catholic". This went to the point that after becoming vice president, there were reports of Biden supposedly being excommunicated, which were later revealed to only amount to the bishops of a couple of churches Biden used to attend denying him communion. The idea of Biden being denied communion arose again after he became president, this time discussed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, but so far no such action has been taken. Regarding Biden's views on the matter, on one incident in 2005, Biden told the ''Cincinnati Enquirer'', "The next Republican that [[BerserkButton tells me I'm not religious]], I'm going to shove my rosary beads down his throat." He did ''[[BeamMeUpScotty not]]'' say that if a Republican ever questioned his faith again, he would shove his rosary beads "[[AssShove up his ass]]", contrary to widespread reporting of the latter.[[/note]]

* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Well, more like Violently Protective ''Wife'', but Biden's wife, Dr. Jill Biden, gained media attention at the 2020 Super Tuesday primaries when, during her husband's victory speech after won the majority of states in contest, she physically blocked a protester who got onstage from getting at him by [[https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/jill-biden-vs-protester-gty-jc-200304_hpMain_16x9_1600.jpg giving the protester a stiff-arm.]] The jokes about it on late night were endless, such as in ''Series/TheLateShowWithStephenColbert'' and ''Series/TheDailyShowWithTrevorNoah''.

* EveryoneHasStandards: For someone who is usually quite respectful and amenable to even the staunchest of Republicans, Biden is quite scornful of his predecessor, dismissing him as irresponsible and lacking in competence.

* HandicappedBadass: [[SpeechImpediment Stuttering]]. Despite the fact that Joe Biden has been in U.S. politics for about 50 years and despite him having [[https://people.com/celebrity/joe-biden-opens-up-about-childhood-stuttering-problem/ spoken of his childhood battles with stuttering during his tenure as VP]], his more famous OpenMouthInsertFoot incidents seem to have overshadowed this issue until the 2020 presidential election. Despite Trump's own tendency to say [[OpenMouthInsertFoot widely derided]] [[WordSalad nonsensical things]], his campaign tried to portray Biden as "senile" and "in cognitive decline", particularly honing in on Biden's less than fluent speech patterns. In what one journalist called "[[https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/admit-it-we-underestimated-joe-biden-20201109-p56ct3.html a political judo move that may be studied for decades to come]]", the Biden campaign chose to fully embrace the stuttering issue: e.g. Joe Biden said at a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWn1CkIU_rc Town Hall on CNN]]: “Stuttering, when you think about it, is the only handicap people still laugh about, that they still humiliate people about and they don’t even mean to” and spoke openly about his longstanding advocacy and work mentoring young people with stuttering problems. Probably the most effective breakthrough for this message was a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id12d8clg_o testimonial at the DNC from a young supporter whom Biden had coached about coping with his own stutter.]] Not only did [[https://www.stutteringhelp.org/content/joe-biden stuttering]] [[https://stamma.org/news-features/joe-biden-president-stammer advocacy]] [[https://couriernewsroom.com/2020/10/02/joe-biden-stutter/ groups]] ([[https://inews.co.uk/opinion/columnists/stammering-joe-biden-stutter-us-election-754253 from around]] [[https://www.med.ubc.ca/news/how-joe-bidens-stutter-helps-people-around-the-world-gain-confidence/ the world]]) [[https://www.health.com/mind-body/joe-biden-stutter jump]] [[https://www.businessinsider.com.au/what-is-a-stutter-cause-treatment-joe-biden-2020-9 in to]] [[https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/joe-bidens-contest-with-his-words support]] [[https://www.instyle.com/celebrity/how-stutter-affects-speech-joe-biden-debate and/or]] [[https://www.rollcall.com/2020/10/20/speech-therapist-discusses-bidens-stutter-ahead-of-final-debate/ defend]] [[https://websterjournal.com/2020/11/18/bidens-stutter-is-not-dementia-and-its-definitely-not-a-joke/ Biden]], some also noted that by portraying Biden as mentally incompetent, the [[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-29/donald-trump-joe-biden-first-presidential-debate/12712750 Trump campaign had set Biden up]] to have a CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass moment. Some even called Biden's stutter his "[[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/opinion/joe-biden-stutter.html superpower]]" because it had given him lifelong training in how to [[BullyingTheDisabled face down a bully]], and given how Trump's "tough talk" rethoric had led to his detractors to compare it to that of a bully.

* BigShutUp: During the first presidential debate of the 2020 American general election, UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump repeatedly interrupted Biden's attempt to answer a question given to him by moderator Chris Wallace on whether he would support "court-packing"[[note]]a proposal introduced by progressive Democrats to add more justices to the Supreme Court. A similar attempt was made by FDR in 1937 to expand the Supreme Court so he could get more favorable rulings on New Deal legislation but backed out due to political pressure. The infighting within the Democratic Party over the court-packing plan, Roosevelt's attempts to purge conservative Democrats in the primaries, and the recession of 1937 were major factors in the Republicans gaining 81 seats in the 1938 House of Representatives elections[[/note]]. Annoyed by this, Biden ended up snapping at Trump "Will you shut up, man?" [[MemeticMutation This instantly became a meme during that year's election cycle]].

* AFatherToHisMen: While how he did so was harshly criticized across the aisle, Biden fiercely defended his withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan, stating that he will not send any more "generations of America's daughters and sons" to fight the war. This was keeping with a promise that he had made over a decade prior when his son Beau was deployed to active service that he would not see his grandchildren go to fight in the same war [[note]]In Biden's defense, it was Trump who got the ball rolling for the withdrawal with not enough time for the Biden Administration to prepare (Trump also freed 5,000 Taliban) and the [=U.S.=] Military had trained the (now exiled) Afghan government's military to continue keeping the Taliban at bay once the US Military left (but they ended up folding almost without a fight)[[/note]].

* BigShutUp: During the first presidential debate of the 2020 American general election, UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump repeatedly interrupted Biden's attempt to answer a question given to him by moderator Chris Wallace. Annoyed by this, Biden ended up snapping at Trump "Will you shut up, man?" [[MemeticMutation This instantly became a meme during that year's election cycle]].

* AFatherToHisMen: While how he did so was harshly criticized across the aisle, Biden fiercely defended his withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan, stating that he will not send any more "generations of America's daughters and sons" to fight the war. This was keeping with a promise that he had made over a decade prior when his son Beau was deployed to active service that he would not see his grandchildren go to fight in the same war [[note]]In his defense, it was Trump who got the ball rolling for the withdrawal with not enough time for the Biden Administration to prepare and the [=U.S.=] Military had trained the (now exiled) Afghan government's military to continue keeping the Taliban at bay once the US Military left[[/note]].

* AFatherToHisMen: While how he did so was harshly criticized across the aisle, Biden fiercely defended his withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan, stating that he will not send any more "generations of America's daughters and sons" to fight the war. This was keeping with a promise that he had made over a decade prior when his son Beau was deployed to active service that he would not see his grandchildren go to fight in the same war.

* ''Film/GameChange'': A good section of the film involves Sarah Palin preparing to take on Biden for the 2008 vice presidential debate. Biden is characterized as an experienced veteran in contrast to the upstart Palin. When Palin first spots him backstage on the night of the debate, he's limbering up in preparation. She awkwardly imitates him.

* TheLoad: A common joke used in satirical portrayals during Biden's tenure as vice president was to portray him as one to president Obama. He was noted as being an odd inverse StrawmanHasAPoint, where many of his comments meant in praise of Obama would, if anyone else were saying it, be savage criticism (such as suggesting that if Obama was elected, a crisis would appear... to test him, and that was ''after'' he was selected as VP). In reality, Biden had [[https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/04/joe-biden-contain-h1n1-virus-232992 gone against Obama]] on policy in ways that would retroactively be deemed correct, only to be dismissed.

* TheLoad: A common joke used in satirical portrayals during Biden's tenure as vice president was to portray him as one to president Obama. He was noted as being an odd inverse StrawmanHasAPoint, where many of his comments meant in praise of Obama would, if anyone else were saying it, be savage criticism (such as suggesting that if Obama was elected, a crisis would appear... to test him, and that was ''after'' he was selected as VP).

* CoolShades: There are quite a few jokes that have been made about his Ray Ban Aviators, which are bordering on becoming his trademark, to the point some signs during his 2020 campaign simply had a picture of a pair of sunglasses on them. There's at least one instance of a rally he was in erupting into cheers just because he put them on, and Creator/JohnOliver on ''Series/{{Last Week Tonight|WithJohnOliver}}'' once joked that Biden's "happy place" is an image of Biden with his sunglasses on eating ice cream while holding a wad of cash (surprisingly enough, there ''is'' [[http://time.com/4408008/joe-biden-ice-cream-obsession/ an actual picture]] that shows Biden doing all those).
** Creator/StephenColbert has taken to swapping his glasses for a pair of aviator sunglasses whenever he does a Joe Biden joke or impression during his monologue.

* On ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', he would become a regular character of the show after he became the 2008 Democratic vice-presidential nominee,[[note]]Although he had been portrayed once beforehand by Creator/KevinNealon on a November 1991 sketch about the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court hearings, in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.[[/note]] being portrayed by Creator/JasonSudeikis, who would continue portraying him during his subsequent vice-presidency. After Sudeikis left the show, it took a while for it to settle on a steady portrayal of him in the 2020 election cycle, with Creator/WoodyHarrelson playing him on a semi-regular basis after first portraying him while hosting the show, Sudeikis briefly returning to reprise the role, and former ''SNL'' writer Creator/JohnMulaney playing him on a one-off sketch, before Season 46 introduced Creator/JimCarrey as his new regular performer after he'd become the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, playing him until the night Biden was announced as the winner of the election. Carrey dropped the role afterwards, so Alex Moffat played Biden since the midseason finale. Moffat's Biden lampshaded the HighTurnoverRate of actors playing Biden, saying, "I'm like [[UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken Colonel Sanders]] -- every time you see me, I'm a different guy."

** Creator/StephenColbert has taken to swapping his glasses for a pair of avatar sunglasses whenever he does a Joe Biden joke or impression during his monologue.

** He would replicate this relationship with Kamala Harris, with the roles inverted. For whatever reason,[[note]]Be it the tragic death of his son towards the end of his tenure as VP, or just the fact that 12 years had passed between Biden being first inaugurated as vice president and as president, and by the time the latter took place he was pushing 80.[[/note]] "Diamond Joe" gave way to a more reserved Biden by the time he became president. Harris, his vice president, on the other hand, was the first African-American (and first South Asian/Indian) vice president, and was noted for, despite cultivating an image of an IronLady in the Senate, not having the trademark ''appearance'' of one (wearing her hair relaxed and long instead of sporting PowerHair, for example), being otherwise vivacious and even having her own distinctive SignatureLaugh.

Tragically, Biden has endured a number of painful personal losses during his public service. His [[HappilyMarried first wife]] Neilia and their baby daughter died in a car accident with both their young sons severely injured, shortly after his first election to the Senate in 1972 -- nearly leading him to resign before his career got started. Biden himself suffered a nearly-fatal brain aneurysm in 1988, then underwent ''another'' surgery for a second one. His older son Beau, a National Guard veteran and Attorney General of Delaware who seemed set to follow in his father's footsteps, died of brain cancer in 2015 towards the end of Biden's tenure as VP (leading him to shelve his tentative plans to run in the 2016 election), and his surviving son Hunter has had long-term struggles with both mental health and substance abuse, with Biden involved in his care and recovery. While Biden is normally seen as fairly mild-mannered, [[PapaWolf going after his family]] [[BerserkButton is certainly]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes not to be advised]]. Nor is questioning his Catholic faith, being (as previously mentioned) only the second Catholic president after JFK and being elected to Congress only 10 years after the death of the latter.[[note]]On one incident in 2005, Biden told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "The next Republican that [[BerserkButton tells me I'm not religious]], I'm going to shove my rosary beads down his throat." He did ''[[BeamMeUpScotty not]]'' say that if a Republican ever questioned his faith again, he would shove his rosary beads "[[AssShove up his ass]]", contrary to widespread reporting of the latter.[[/note]]

* AFatherToHisMen: While how he did so was harshly criticised across the aisle, but Biden fiercely defended his withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan, stating that he will not send any more "generations of America's daughters and sons" to fight the war.

* BookEnds: He started his political career as the youngest U.S. Senator in modern[[note]] read: "age-checked". There have been a few serving in the past who were not actually 30 or even close, but as Joe was still 29 when he won the 1972 Senate race, he's about as young as you can currently get — to compare, the youngest Senator to get anywhere near that, Georgia's Jon Ossoff, wasn’t even elected until 2020[[/note]] history, and ultimately became the oldest President. To make this even stranger, as noted by some of the news anchors who covered the 2020 presidential election (such as Mika Brzezinski of Creator/{{MSNBC}}'s ''Morning Joe''), he was elected to his first Senate term on November 7, 1972; and the 2020 presidential election was called for him on November 7, 2020.

[[caption-width-right:300:The [[YoungGun youngest U.S. senator]] in 1973, and the [[CoolOldGuy oldest U.S. president]] in 2021. [[{{Catchphrase}} No Malarkey, Jack!]]]]

Tragically, Biden has endured a number of painful personal losses during his public service. His [[HappilyMarried first wife]] Neilia and their baby daughter died in a car accident with both their young sons severely injured, shortly after his first election to the Senate in 1972 -- nearly leading him to resign before his career got started. Biden himself suffered a nearly-fatal brain aneurysm in 1988, then underwent ''another'' surgery for a second one. His older son Beau, a National Guard veteran and Attorney General of Delaware who seemed set to follow in his father's footsteps, died of brain cancer in 2015 towards the end of Biden's tenure as VP (leading him to shelve his tentative plans to run in the 2016 election), and his surviving son Hunter has had long-term struggles with both mental health and substance abuse, with Biden involved in his care and recovery. While Joe Biden is normally seen as fairly mild-mannered, [[PapaWolf going after his family]] [[BerserkButton is certainly]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes not to be advised]]. Nor is questioning his Catholic faith, being (as previously mentioned) only the second Catholic president after JFK and being elected to Congress only 10 years after the death of the latter.[[note]]On one incident in 2005, Biden told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "The next Republican that [[BerserkButton tells me I'm not religious]], I'm going to shove my rosary beads down his throat." He did ''[[BeamMeUpScotty not]]'' say that if a Republican ever questioned his faith again, he would shove his rosary beads "[[AssShove up his ass]]", contrary to widespread reporting of the latter.[[/note]]

* BookEnds: He started his political career as the youngest U.S. Senator in history, and ultimately became the oldest President. To make this even stranger, as noted by some of the news anchors who covered the 2020 presidential election (such as Mika Brzezinski of Creator/{{MSNBC}}'s ''Morning Joe''), he was elected to his first Senate term on November 7, 1972; and the 2020 presidential election was called for him on November 7, 2020.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942 in Scranton, UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}}) is the 46th and current President of the United States, and the seventeenth from the Democratic Party, having been in office since [[TheNewTwenties 2021]]. He succeeded UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, whom he defeated in a contentious election in 2020, becoming the first candidate to defeat an incumbent president since UsefulNotes/BillClinton beat UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush in the 1992 election. Taking the Oath of Office at 78, he is the oldest president to serve, with the previous oldest, UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, having left office just shy of his 78th birthday. He is also only the second Catholic president after UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy,[[note]]He was also the first Catholic vice president.[[/note]] and the first person belonging to the Silent Generation (those born between 1928 and 1945) to become President.

Tragically, Biden has endured a number of painful personal losses during his public service. His [[HappilyMarried first wife]] Neilia and their baby daughter died in a car accident with both their young sons severely injured, shortly after his first election to the Senate in 1972 -- nearly leading him to resign before his career got started. Biden himself suffered a nearly-fatal brain aneurysm in 1988, then underwent ''another'' surgery for a second one. His older son Beau, a National Guard veteran and Attorney General of Delaware who seemed set to follow in his father's footsteps, died of brain cancer in 2015 towards the end of Biden's tenure as VP (leading him to shelve his tentative plans to run in the 2016 election). While Joe Biden is normally seen as fairly mild-mannered, [[PapaWolf going after his family]] [[BerserkButton is certainly]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes not to be advised]]. Nor is questioning his Catholic faith, being (as previously mentioned) only the second Catholic president after JFK and being elected to Congress only 10 years after the death of the latter.[[note]]On one incident in 2005, Biden told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "The next Republican that [[BerserkButton tells me I'm not religious]], I'm going to shove my rosary beads down his throat." He did ''[[BeamMeUpScotty not]]'' say that if a Republican ever questioned his faith again, he would shove his rosary beads "[[AssShove up his ass]]", contrary to widespread reporting of the latter.[[/note]]

* CoolCar: Biden is a known car enthusiast, and several of his appearances in media have him accompained by a nice ride.

** Apparently, even becoming president didn't deter him on cars. Weeks into his presidency, he visited a Ford plant in Detroit to extol his administration's plan for electric cars -- and he promptly decided to try out the F-150 Lightning, Ford's fully-electric pickup truck, by driving it himself (obviously accompanied by the Secret Service). Many jokes soon emerged comparing it to the time his predecessor hopped into a truck cab but only limited himself to blow its horn.

Tragically, Biden has endured a number of painful personal losses during his public service. His [[HappilyMarried first wife]] Neilia and their baby daughter died in a car accident with both their young sons severely injured, shortly after his first election to the Senate in 1972 -- nearly leading him to resign before his career got started. Biden himself suffered a nearly-fatal brain aneurysm in 1988, then underwent ''another'' surgery for a second one. His older son Beau, a National Guard veteran and Attorney General of Delaware who seemed set to follow in his father's footsteps, died of brain cancer in 2015 towards the end of Biden's tenure as VP (leading him to shelve his tentative plans to run in the 2016 election). While Joe Biden is normally seen as fairly mild-mannered, [[PapaWolf going after his family]] [[BerserkButton is certainly]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes not to be advised]]. Nor is questioning his Catholic faith, being (as previously mentioned) only the second Catholic president after JFK and being elected to Congress only 10 years after the death of the latter.[[note]]On one incident in 2005, Biden told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "The next Republican that [[BerserkButton tells me I'm not religious]], I'm going to shove my rosary beads down his throat." He most definitely did ''[[BeamMeUpScotty not]]'' ever say that if a Republican questioned his faith again, he would shove his rosary beads "[[AssShove up his ass]]", contrary to widespread reporting of the contrary.[[/note]]

Tragically, Biden has endured a number of painful personal losses during his public service. His first wife and their daughter died in a car accident shortly after his first election to the Senate in 1972, nearly leading him to resign before his career got started. His older son Beau, a National Guard veteran and Attorney General of Delaware who seemed set to follow in his father's footsteps, died of brain cancer in 2015 towards the end of Biden's tenure as VP (leading him to shelve his tentative plans to run in the 2016 election). While Joe Biden is normally seen as fairly mild-mannered, [[PapaWolf going after his family]] [[BerserkButton is certainly]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes not to be advised]]. Nor is questioning his Catholic faith, being (as previously mentioned) only the second Catholic president after JFK and being elected to Congress only 10 years after the death of the latter.[[note]]On one incident in 2005, Biden told the Cincinnati Enquirer, "The next Republican that [[BerserkButton tells me I'm not religious]], I'm going to shove my rosary beads down his throat." He most definitely did ''[[BeamMeUpScotty not]]'' ever say that if a Republican questioned his faith again, he would shove his rosary beads "[[AssShove up his ass]]", contrary to widespread reporting of the contrary.[[/note]]

Tragically, Biden has endured a number of painful personal losses during his public service. His first wife and their daughter died in a car accident shortly after his first election to the Senate in 1972, nearly leading him to resign before his career got started. His older son Beau, a National Guard veteran and Attorney General of Delaware who seemed set to follow in his father's footsteps, died of brain cancer in 2015 towards the end of Biden's tenure as VP (leading him to shelve his tentative plans to run in the 2016 election). While Joe Biden is normally seen as fairly mild-mannered, [[PapaWolf going after his family]] [[BerserkButton is certainly]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes not to be advised]].