Joe Biden - President Elect

Joe Robinette Biden is the President-Elect of the United States and will be the 46th President. Many in Ireland are celebrating as Joe has roots in both County Mayo and Louth with his great grandfather hailing from Ballina Mayo. Biden's other great-great-grandfather was from the Cooley Peninsula, Co Louth. Joe has referenced his Irish heritage numerous times, and he is sure to do so more times. 

Joe Biden will also be the second Catholic President of the United States (The first being JFK) and the oldest President in history at 77 years old and by the time of his inauguration, he will be 78. Biden's career spans shy of 50 years in Public services, being a senator for Delaware (1973-2009) and Vice President from 2008-2017 under the Obama administration.

Joe was first elected to the U.S. senate in 1972. In the same year, Biden's then-wife Neilia Hunter and their one-year-old daughter Amy died in a car crash that left their two sons, Beau and Hunter injured. Biden would visit them in hospital, often a 90-minute journey between Delaware and D.C. and considered resigning to care for them. 

Biden's term in the senate is of its time as he was what could be called a conservative Democrat. In the mid-70s Biden was an opponent of Busing. Busing was a de-segregate measure meant to integrate African Americans into primarily white segregated schools and White children to mainly African American segregated schools. Many of his constituents in Delaware were opposed to Busing and Biden referred to Busing as "the single most devastating issue that could occur to Delaware." Following from this Biden put forward a bill that barred Federal funds from being used by Department of Health, Education and Welfare to implemented anti-segregation policies. The stance taken by Biden was it was not the role of the Federal government to implement this anti-segregation polices even though it was the Federal government that ended segregation in federal law.

In 1988 Biden would run for President for the first time, and it was noted from many gaffes during his short campaign run. During his 3-month candidacy, Biden has plagiarised speeches from U.K. Labour leader Neil Kinnock and speeches from Robert F. Kennedy. These claims would combinate in lies being uncovered that Biden had told about his examination at a Delaware college and finally lies about various false degrees he did not have, false grades he did not receive and claims he had marched in the civil rights movements and engaged in sit-ins. Joe Biden would drop out in September of 1987. Joe would state his campaign of 1988 overrun by "the exaggerated shadow" of his past mistakes.

In the 1988 Biden would suffer a brain aneurysm in February and in May and would require surgery. Biden's recovery would take 7-long months, and he would return to take a seat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. During the Clarence Thomas's nomination hearings who was nominated to the supreme court by then-President George H.W Bush. Claims of sexual harassment were placed against Clarence Thomas by Anita Hill, and Joe Biden would question her in what is now an infamous and unsettling procedure is now.

One of Biden's self-proclaimed lasting successes was the 1994 Crime Bill which he co-authored, it was in response to the perceived softness on crime by then-President George H.W.Bush. In 1989 then-President Bush announced his National Drug Control Strategy which funded $1.5 Billion dollars into anti-drug law enforcement. Biden would respond to this announcement by stating:

 "Quite frankly, the president's plan is not tough enough, bold enough, or imaginative enough to meet the crisis at hand… the President’s plan does not include enough police officers to catch the violent thugs…or enough prison cells to put them away for a long time."

Joe would push for civil asset forfeiture, allowing law enforcement to seize assets from suspects involved in illegal actives without being charged with illegal wrongdoing. This bill from 1994 has come under scrutiny during his democrat nominee run as it resulted in more African Americans being incarcerated and introduced harsh sentencing for drug possession such as five years for an amount of cocaine larger than a quarter (coin). The legacy of this bill would be a criminal sentencing disparity among the American populace.

In 2007 Joe Biden would again announce his candidacy for the Democratic party nomination and again would be unsuccessful but would be offered the Vice-Presidency by Democratic nominee Barrack Obama. At first, he declined but later accepted Obama proposition. The ticket of Obama and Biden would win the 2008 election over McCain and Palin, creating history as the first African American to win the presidency during the unprecedented economic crisis of 2008/9.

On April 25th, 2019 Joe Biden announced his candidacy for the democratic nominee for the Presidential election, Biden would face considerable opposition from other Democratic party candidates as they attacked his record and ability to win an election. Biden finished fourth in the Iowa Caucasus and eight in the New Hampshire Caucasus but performed better in Nevada one.

 During this time Bernie Sanders had a lead of 21.6 over Biden.

Success would follow, winning South Caroline and several states on Super Tuesday and on April 8th, 2020 Biden became the presumptive nominee. During the summer he announced his vice president of US Senator Kamala Harris the first African American and South Asian American vice-presidential nominee on a major-party ticket.

Joe Biden campaigned on a COVID response with national test and trace centres promising 10 for every state. Build Back Better is President-elect Joe Biden's big campaign plan that consists of targeting young people and blue-collar workers. Ending the Trump tax cuts, an additional $200 in social security payments and a student loan debt forgiveness of $10,000. Also on Biden's cards is a federal minimum wage increase to $15 an hour and $2 trillion invested into green energy stating it would boost manufacturing and pledges to invest in US-made goods and services.

His campaign policies will be scrutinized by the Office of Budget and Management, and they will take Biden's campaign pledges and turn them into a bill that can be presented to Congress to be voted on.

Atoning for his 1994 crime bill, Biden now proposes to reduce incarceration by federal grants for states to build rehabilitation programmes, decriminalize marijuana, end convictions for marijuana and end the death penalty.

Additional for climate Change Joe Biden states the United States will re-join the Paris climate accord. 

 Joe Biden has a tough road ahead from legal challenges to the election count, racism, geo-political tensions and the MAGA movement which is a now a sizeable force in the Republican Party or in a possible future case, form into a  new group similar to that of the Tea Party in 2009.