A Look at Joe Biden's Half-Century of Service in Various Political Arenas in the United States

Joe Biden, the President of the United States, announced on Sunday that he would not participate in the 2024 presidential election, having served nearly half a century in Washington, whether in the Senate, as Vice President, or ultimately in the White House as President. When Joe Biden leaves the White House in January 2025, he will have spent nearly his entire professional career in U.S. national politics. Turning 82 this November, he has been in public service longer than some of his Democratic colleagues have been alive. In 1972, he surprised Democrats by winning a Senate seat at the age of 29, becoming the sixth-youngest senator in U.S. history. Now, his advancing age is one of the main reasons Democratic leaders have urged him to withdraw from the November 5 election. Polls indicate that most Americans believe he is too old for another presidential term. Biden's decades of service as an elected official have resulted in a long record of career successes and failures. Here, we take a look at key moments in his professional life. Presidency The grueling COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, the war in Gaza, a bold China, and of course, the economic and social consequences of all these issues. Biden also fought domestically to address rising inflation—the highest inflation rate in four decades—which has significantly increased the cost of living for American citizens, as well as dealing with rising immigration along the southern U.S. border and issues related to social, racial, and gender justice. In a separate resolution, Democrats, facing unified Republican opposition, passed an economic aid bill in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and then a $369 billion plan to help control the effects of climate change, the largest environmental protection budget. However, significant government spending has become problematic, with some economists attributing it to the excessive rise in consumer prices in the United States; the inflation rate has not yet fully decreased to the central bank's target rate. Perhaps in Biden's greatest foreign policy achievement, he led a coalition of Western countries to send billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine to help Kyiv prevent the advance of Russian forces, which were initially expected to occupy the Ukrainian capital a few days after the February 2020 invasion. However, even with Biden's unwavering support for Ukraine, the war has reached a stalemate, and an easy end cannot be envisioned. On the foreign front, Biden's popularity plummeted sharply after 13 American soldiers were killed during the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces from Afghanistan. The Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza has also posed challenges for Biden. He stood by Israel even after protests by Palestinian supporters began at U.S. universities. As this war, now in its tenth month, has dragged on, Biden has called for its end and criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conduct in this war. Vice Presidency Before running for president in 2020, Joe Biden served as Vice President to Barack Obama from 2009 for eight years. Biden was responsible for many major projects, including the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal aid to state and local governments to help their economies recover from the 'Great Recession.' He also worked with Mitch McConnell, who was then the Senate Republican minority leader, to prevent a federal government shutdown and ensure government debts were paid. When Barack Obama awarded Joe Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 2017, he surprised him. Obama described Biden as 'the best Vice President in American history.' Obama largely hoped that Biden's extensive international experience, gained during his time as a senator, would compensate for his own limited experience in this area by selecting him as Vice President. For a long time, it was thought that Biden would be a likely successor to Obama, but he did not run for president in 2016 due to the grief following the death of his son, Beau, from brain cancer at the age of 46. However, a 2019 report by The New York Times stated that Obama discouraged Biden from running in the 2016 presidential election, believing that Hillary Clinton, the leading candidate at the time, had the best chance of winning that year. After Biden won the Senate election in 1972 to represent Delaware, he spent the next 36 years in Congress, commuting by train over a hundred miles between Wilmington and Washington most days. He rose through the ranks of the Democratic Party, serving twice as the chair of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee and once as the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Biden, known as someone who could work with Republicans like John McCain and Chuck Hagel in Congress, has always supported bipartisan efforts. However, despite his relationships with Republican lawmakers, when he became president, he sought to turn those relationships into legislative achievements. Biden's successes in the Senate included supporting the Violence Against Women Act, which made it easier to prosecute domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. He helped pass a law requiring background checks for many gun buyers. Critics say that looking back, some of his proposals failed. Biden has expressed regret over several of his decisions in the Senate, including supporting the 1994 crime bill that contributed to the increased incarceration rates of African Americans and his vote for the authorization to invade Iraq in 2003. He has also faced criticism for his role as chair of the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court Justice in 1991, who was accused of sexual harassment by Anita Hill. In 2019, Biden apologized for that situation. Before his successful presidential nomination in 2020, Biden had run for president twice before, in 1988 and 2008, failing to secure the Democratic nomination in either. He ultimately won the 2020 election against Donald Trump. When Joe Biden became President of the United States on January 20, 2021, at the age of 78, he became the oldest executive in history, taking that title from Trump, who was 70 when he became president in 2017. Joe Biden has withdrawn from the Democratic candidacy for the U.S. presidential election.