50 Fun Facts About Joe Biden

Before Joe Biden, who was the last U.S. president to have also served as vice president?

George H. W. Bush: after a single term, he lost his re-election bid in 1992.

Biden represented which state in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 2009?

Delaware: he gave up the seat in 2009 to become Barack Obama's vice president.

Biden was born in which Pennsylvania city?

Scranton: after his father's business ventures failed, the family moved back there to live with his mother's parents.

To overcome a childhood stutter, Biden memorised lines from which two writers?

Emerson and Yeats: as a young teen he recited them in front of his bedroom mirror.

Biden's father eventually found success in what line of work?

Used-car sales: he had been wealthy in the 1940s, before business setbacks upended the family.

Biden earned his law degree in 1968 from which university?

Syracuse: as a student there he copied from a law review article without citation for a class paper.

Biden's first elected office, won in 1970, was a seat on what?

New Castle County Council: he served there only two years before running for the U.S. Senate.

Which Republican incumbent did Biden upset to win his Senate seat in 1972?

J. Caleb Boggs: he had considered retiring and ran again only after President Nixon helped persuade him.

Weeks after a family tragedy, where did the newly elected Biden take his Senate oath in January 1973?

A hospital chapel: his sons, injured weeks earlier, were at his side as he took the oath.

Weeks after his 1972 election, Biden's first wife Neilia and their daughter Naomi died how?

In a car accident: a tractor-trailer hit their station wagon, and Majority Leader Mike Mansfield talked him out of resigning.

Biden's nickname "Amtrak Joe" came from commuting daily by train between Washington and which city?

Wilmington: he began riding home each evening so he could be with his young sons.

Biden married Jill Jacobs in 1977 in a chapel belonging to which institution?

The United Nations: his sons had urged him to marry Jill.

Which summer job did Biden take in college, an experience he credited with widening his view of race?

Lifeguard: he was the only white lifeguard at a public pool in a Black neighborhood.

Biden's son Beau died in 2015 of what?

Brain cancer: grieving, Biden wavered over a 2016 presidential run and in October 2015 chose not to enter.

Biden's daughter Ashley has built a career in which fields?

Social work and fashion design: her clothing line, Livelihood, launched with Gilt to raise money for community programs.

Biden's 1988 campaign collapsed over alleged plagiarism of which British politician's speech?

Neil Kinnock: aides to rival Michael Dukakis secretly sent reporters a side-by-side video of both speeches, and Dukakis's campaign manager lost his job over it.

In 1988 Biden underwent surgery for what life-threatening condition?

Brain aneurysms: his recovery from the two operations kept him away from the Senate for seven months.

Biden chaired which Senate committee from 1987 to 1995?

Judiciary: his hearings ended with the Senate rejecting Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination, 58 to 42.

Which 1994 law did Biden draft and shepherd through Congress?

Violence Against Women Act: in 2000 the Supreme Court struck down its provision letting victims sue attackers in federal court.

Biden voted against which war, but later backed the 2002 resolution authorizing the Iraq War?

The Gulf War: he later soured on the Iraq War too, opposing the 2007 troop surge.

From 1991 to 2008 Biden taught a constitutional law seminar at which university's law school?

Widener: he even returned to teach the Saturday class in fall 2008, while campaigning as Obama's running mate.

In May 2012, Biden said he was 'absolutely comfortable' with what, days before Obama backed it too?

Same-sex marriage: Biden's remark pushed Obama to announce his own support sooner than he had planned.

Biden's official residence as vice president was at what address?

Number One Observatory Circle: Congress turned the Navy chief's house into the vice president's official home in 1974.

Biden's 2017 memoir about the year of Beau's illness is titled what?

Promise Me, Dad: the title comes from Beau asking his father to promise that, whatever happened, he would be all right.

Which House Democrat's endorsement helped revive Biden's 2020 campaign after poor finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire?

Jim Clyburn: soon after, rivals Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar quit the race and endorsed Biden ahead of Super Tuesday.

Kamala Harris in 2020 was the first major-ticket vice-presidential nominee to be what?

African American and South Asian American: in a 2019 debate she had challenged Biden over his opposition to school busing.

Biden was inaugurated as the second Catholic U.S. president after whom?

John F. Kennedy: in 1960 he told Protestant ministers in Houston that no Catholic prelate should tell a president how to act.

Biden's first major law, a COVID relief package signed in March 2021, was called what?

American Rescue Plan Act: it sent $1,400 payments to eligible Americans and to each of their dependents.

Whom did Biden appoint to the Supreme Court in 2022, fulfilling a campaign pledge?

Ketanji Brown Jackson: she had once clerked for Stephen Breyer, the justice whose seat she took.

Every federal judge Biden appointed was confirmed while which Democrat served as Senate majority leader?

Chuck Schumer: Democrats held the Senate from 2021 until January 2025, at first only through Vice President Kamala Harris's tie-breaking vote.

Which group claimed the August 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members?

ISIS-K: days later, a U.S. drone strike in Kabul aimed at its suspected members instead killed ten civilians, including seven children.

In 2022 Biden formally approved the NATO membership of Finland and which other country?

Sweden: ratifications dragged on, and it formally joined NATO only in March 2024.

In February 2023, Biden made an unannounced wartime visit to which Ukrainian city?

Kyiv: some hours before he set off, the U.S. notified Russia of the trip to avoid any miscalculation.

In February 2023 a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down off which state's coast?

South Carolina: a fighter jet brought it down over the Atlantic, and the Navy recovered the debris.

Biden's 2022 climate and health law, introduced by Manchin and Schumer, was titled what?

It authorised $370 billion for energy and climate and let Medicare negotiate drug prices.

Most of the 674 million acres of land and ocean that Biden protected came from banning what?

Offshore drilling: the ban covered 625 million acres of ocean, and he also restored three national monuments.

Classified documents from the Obama-era vice presidency turned up in November 2022 at which organization's office?

The Penn Biden Center: special counsel Robert Hur's report later concluded that no criminal charges were warranted.

At his 2021 inauguration, Biden overtook which president as the oldest person ever to serve in the office?

Ronald Reagan: aware of his age, Biden had suggested in 2020 that a new generation would follow him.

Biden's July 2024 exit made him the first sitting president since whom to abandon a re-election bid?

Lyndon B. Johnson: Biden then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the party's nominee.

Which congressman ran against Biden in the 2024 Democratic primaries as a younger alternative?

Dean Phillips: he had warned that Biden was too old for another term, then dropped out after Super Tuesday.

Whom did Biden pardon in December 2024, breaking his repeated pledge?

His son Hunter: Biden said his son had been singled out and unfairly prosecuted.

In May 2025 Biden's office announced he had been diagnosed with which illness?

Aggressive prostate cancer: it had already spread to his bones, and he completed a course of radiation therapy in October 2025.

Who first played Biden on Saturday Night Live, in 1991?

Kevin Nealon: Dana Carvey, who played another senator in that 1991 sketch, took over the Biden role in 2024.

Which actor played Biden in the 2016 HBO film Confirmation?

Greg Kinnear: he was drawn in by Susannah Grant's script, which showed backroom machinations he hadn't known about while watching on TV in 1991.

By January 2025, Gallup's polling put Biden's average job approval above only which president's?

Donald Trump: Biden's approval dropped after the chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal and stayed low for the rest of his term.

In 2008, which debate opponent greeted Biden with a request to call him Joe?

Sarah Palin: she also warned she might not answer the questions the way the moderator or Biden wanted.

At Archmere Academy, Biden was a standout in which sport?

Football: as a senior in 1960 he helped a long-losing team go unbeaten.

Which Republican was Biden's senior home-state colleague in the Senate until losing his seat in 2000?

William Roth: he sponsored a new retirement account in a 1997 tax law, and it took his name as the Roth IRA.

On his first day in office, Biden revoked the permit for which oil pipeline?

Keystone XL: the same day, he also signed an order rejoining the Paris climate agreement.

Biden signed a 2021 law making which day a federal holiday?

Juneteenth: one senator's objection to the cost of a paid day off blocked the bill in 2020, before the Senate passed it unanimously in 2021.