The Transformation Of Joe Biden From His Childhood To 2021

As a veteran politician, Joe Biden spent much of his career as a senator of Delaware. Starting in 1972, Biden won his first race as senator and became "the fifth-youngest senator in U.S. history," per History. Biden continued to win, repeating through the '80s, '90s, and '00s. In his Senate seat for 36 years, Biden was a part of milestone decisions, like when he and the other senators dealt with the repercussions of a scandal that shocked the White House — the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. In 1999, the Senate acquitted President Clinton — Biden voted "not guilty" to both impeachment articles, CNN reported. Biden also voted in favor of the Iraq War in 2002, a vote that future president Barack Obama opposed, per the Los Angeles Times.

Outside of politics, Biden appeared to live a relatively normal home life. According to UVA Miller Center, after his son Beau's untimely death in 2015, he lost his "appetite" for politics briefly, and instead "created the Biden Foundation and the Biden Cancer Initiative" with his wife, until his run for presidency. But Biden's life hasn't been easy on the road to becoming president in 2020, including scandals and tragedies over his decades in the public eye. This is the transformation of Joe Biden from his childhood to 2021. 

For higher education, Joe Biden stayed close to home and attended the University of Delaware. One of his friends at school, Fred Sears, described Biden at the time as "a good-looking guy with a gift of gab," (via The New York Times). Biden was reportedly "an aspiring football running back" and in his freshman year, "Biden was elected president of his class." A fellow football player with Biden remembered him as a charming young man. Biden reportedly didn't drink, didn't smoke, and often drove around in a convertible.

While at school, Biden also worked as a lifeguard in Wilmington, Delaware. Reportedly, "Biden was the only white lifeguard at a public pool in an African-American neighborhood." And as Maurice Pritchett, an education leader in Wilmington at the time told The New York Times, Biden "was always right there. And we accepted him." Biden stood up for what he felt was right, and reportedly "once walked out of a Wilmington restaurant that refused to serve a Black student from his high school."

By the end of his time as an undergraduate, Biden graduated with a double major in political science and history, according to the University of Delaware.

After meeting Neilia Hunter on vacation, Joe Biden wanted to be closer to her. Hunter and her family were from upstate New York, so Biden applied to Syracuse University Law School, per The New York Times. Biden and Hunter were married in 1966 while Biden was still in graduate school. 

The newlyweds lived together in a first-floor apartment in Syracuse from 1966 to 1968, per Syracuse. Biden was taking classes while Hunter was a teacher at a nearby elementary school. The two, plus their German shepherd, were well-liked in the community. For example, according to neighbors and friends of the Bidens, the couple hosted Sunday dinners, Biden enjoyed cars (unsurprising with a father who sold cars), and he owned a green 1967 Stingray Corvette (it was a wedding gift from his father). As of 2020, Biden still owned that same car, but back then, he reportedly drove around Syracuse in the classic whip with friends. 

Biden also was a protector in the community. Allegedly, "when a neighbor kid was attacked for stuttering, it was Biden who appeared from nowhere to shout down the bullies." The young boy, Kevin Coyne, remembered the future president went chasing after the kids who were teasing. "He really lit into them," Coyne detailed, adding that he didn't realize Biden stuttered himself.

Though he was still dealing with the tragic death of his wife and daughter, Joe Biden unexpectedly found love. In a video for the Democratic National Convention, he revealed, "My brother said, 'There's this woman — you'll really like her, Joe.' So, I gave her a call and she had a date that night." But her first response was even more comical. "'How did you get this number?' Those were the first words I spoke to Joe when he called me out of the blue on a Saturday in 1975," Jill Biden posted on her Instagram. As Jill recalled in the DNC video, Joe asked her to skip the date and go out with him instead. "I called and told the guy that I had a friend in from out of town and went out with Joe," she revealed.

"I wasn't big on the whole date scene thing. But when I met Jill, I fell in love with her when I saw her," Joe said. The two began dating and Joe said his two boys were also enamored with Jill. He recalled his boys telling him, "we think it's time we married Jill." Joe felt the same and asked Jill to marry him. But it took a few tries until Joe received the response he hoped for. He asked her to marry him five times and finally, she said, "okay."

To be elected into the Senate at such a young age meant Joe Biden had impressive political characteristics. According to Time, starting with his 1972 appointment, Biden "was already seen as White House material." By 1987, Biden declared he would run for president in the 1988 election. At the time, "he was considered by quite a few people as a bright new hope, different from other Democrats." As one of seven Democratic candidates, who collectively were called the "Seven Dwarfs," Biden's reception amongst voters was mixed. But a plagiarism scandal essentially put the end to his hopes as a nominee. Biden was caught copying British politician Neil Kinnock's speech without quoting. And the press "found earlier cases in which Biden had failed to give proper citation to Humphrey and Robert Kennedy." And finally, news broke that while at Syracuse University Law School, "Biden failed a course because he wrote a paper that used five pages from a published law-review article without quotation marks or a proper footnote."

Biden dropped out of the race after the scandal but his troubles weren't over. Soon after, the senator "had a headache that turned out to be a brain aneurysm." After surgery, doctors found another aneurysm, which again required surgery. According to Biden, "There is no doubt — the doctors have no doubt — that had I remained in the race, I'd be dead."

Through Joe Biden's years as a senator, one thing that remained constant was his way to get to work. Every day, Biden would take the Amtrak train from Delaware to Washington D.C., and then return by train at night. He started in 1972 and after decades of the same routine, Biden earned the nickname "Amtrak Joe." As Biden wrote for the Huffington Post, "I began making the 110-mile commute shortly after I was sworn in as a Senator. It was the only way that I could have been a Senator at all. I had to be able to get home to spend evenings with my two sons after we lost their mother and sister in an auto accident a month earlier."

Biden detailed an adorable story when it was his birthday on a workday. Biden's daughter planned a party but the senator needed to be present in Washington D.C. for a vote. According to Biden, he left early in the evening, "boarded the train and, in Wilmington, my daughter was standing there on the middle platform. She and my wife sang 'Happy Birthday,' I blew out the candle, took a piece of cake, opened her gift, gave her a kiss," then hopped back on the train to go vote.

Biden rode the train for 36 years, only stopping when he became Vice President. By that time, Biden said, "I've taken more than 7,000 round trips on Amtrak over the course of my career."

After four years in office, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were the incumbents seeking reelection in the 2012 presidential race. "Obama secured the Democratic nomination without any serious opposition. By contrast, the 2012 Republican scene was fractured," Politico summarized. Prior to the election of Obama against Mitt Romney, the two vice president candidates went head-to-head in a televised debate. Biden went up against Paul Ryan. As recapped by The Guardian, Biden, "whose high-energy performance — part angry bar-room debater, part condescending elder uncle, part comic mime artist — frequently seemed to leave Paul Ryan overwhelmed." This included at one point calling Ryan's claims "malarkey." And the timing couldn't have been better for Biden's performance, coming off Obama's "abysmal performance in Denver" the week before.

Obama and Biden won in the election and finished out their eight years in office together. Reflecting back on the two terms, Ronald Kessler, a secret service agent at the time, revealed secrets about Biden. In Kessler's book "The First Family Detail" (via The Atlantic), he claimed Biden loved to go swimming. "Agents say that, whether at the vice president's residence or at his home in Delaware, Biden has a habit of swimming in his pool nude." The book also noted, "Female Secret Service agents find the behavior offensive." And in the author's opinion, he felt being assigned to protect Biden was "considered the second-worst assignment after Hillary Clinton" because of Biden's alleged "lack of consideration."

After Donald Trump became the president, Joe Biden was out of a job in politics for the first time in decades. But this didn't mean he was struggling financially. In fact, after leaving office as vice president, his net worth soared. According to Forbes, Joe and his wife Jill earned a reported "$22.5 million from 1998 to 2019." And the publication estimated that the couple "earned three quarters of that money since Joe left his post as vice president in 2017." All this money came from multiple income sources. For example, both Joe and Jill became published authors. Joe wrote a memoir called "Promise Me, Dad," and Jill wrote her memoir "Where the Light Enters." 

In addition to writing, the Bidens were also professors. Jill taught at Northern Virginia Community College when Joe became vice president. And after leaving office, Joe was "named the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor at the University of Pennsylvania." He stayed in this role for two years before starting his presidential run in 2019. And in addition to teaching, the couple delivered speeches across the country. In one instance, Joe "received $190,000 for a speech in Madison, New Jersey, paid for by Drew University." As of this writing, Joe's net worth is estimated to be $9 million.