Yei Boayue and Marie Callahan (L-R) celebrate the news that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has seemingly won the election while waiting at the Chase Center where Biden is expected to make an announcement on November 07, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Votes are still being counted in his race against incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump. (Photo by JOE RAEDLE / Getty Images via AFP)
WASHINGTON 鈥 He has channeled personal tragedy into a heart-on-his-sleeve compassion for everyday Americans, but President-elect Joe Biden faces the challenge of a lifetime as he inherits a nation both traumatized and spellbound by his White House predecessor.
Biden鈥檚 victory 鈥 projected by TV networks Saturday in a cliffhanger election with the United States in crisis 鈥 turns the page on Donald Trump鈥檚 most divisive of presidencies, and rewards his appeal to the better angels of a deeply-riven country.
But can the man who has cast himself as healer-in-chief make headway in a nation where Trump鈥檚 ideology, regardless of the president鈥檚 defeat, shows little sign of diminishing?
Rarely have presidential rivals differed so sharply as in the 2020 race, which pitted the empathetic Democrat against the brawling Trump, the billionaire businessman who ran as the outsider despite his four years in the Oval Office.
As the sun rose on Washington鈥檚 National Mall, the morning after a fraught Election Night, the razor-tight contest looked as if it could go either way.
But as the quietly confident Democrat picked up state after state in the ensuing days, his victory slowly but inexorably took shape.
By Saturday, US networks projected he won the pivotal state of Pennsylvania 鈥 and the White House.
鈥淭he work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans,鈥 the 46th US president-in-waiting said shortly after networks made the call.
Now, all of his work is ahead of him.
He inherits a coronavirus pandemic that shows no signs of abating and an office he believes has had its credibility shattered by the 鈥渓iar鈥 Trump.
Biden ran for the White House twice before, in 1987 and 2008.
A loss to the deeply polarizing Trump 鈥 Biden said in the election鈥檚 final stretch 鈥 would mean he had been a 鈥渓ousy鈥 candidate, lowering the curtain on a prolific but ultimately unfulfilled political career.
But 鈥淢iddle Class Joe鈥 had made it his life鈥檚 crowning mission to unseat the Republican and, in his words, restore the 鈥渟oul鈥 of America.
And despite a campaign muted beyond recognition by Covid-19 鈥 conducted largely from home while his high-octane rival charged around the country 鈥 Biden ultimately showed Trump the door.
Enduring compassion
When he takes the oath of office on January 20, at age 78, Biden will be the oldest US head of state ever inaugurated.
He hit the national stage at just 29, with a surprise US Senate win in Delaware in 1972.
One month later tragedy struck: his wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car crash as they were Christmas shopping.
Biden鈥檚 two sons were severely injured but survived, only for the eldest, Beau, to succumb to cancer four decades later, in 2015.
Throughout his life Biden has spoken poignantly of his personal encounters with tragedy, seen as having nourished a capacity for genuine empathy 鈥 something Trump failed to demonstrate even as the toll from Covid-19 climbed towards a quarter million.
His retail politicking skills are peerless: he can flash his million-watt smile at college students, commiserate with unemployed Rust Belt machinists, or deliver a fiery admonishment of rivals.
That personable, gregarious quality was curtailed by the pandemic, which brought in-person campaigning to a halt in March and prompted a more cautious Biden on the trail.
Somewhat diminished from the figure he presented during his eight years as Barack Obama鈥檚 vice president, the dazzling smile remained. But Biden鈥檚 gait was more delicate and his fine white hair had thinned.
Opponents, and even some Democrats, wondered whether Biden, garrulous and gaffe-prone, would stumble in his long campaign against Trump.
The 74-year-old president nicknamed him 鈥淪leepy Joe鈥 and accused him of diminished mental acuity.
In a flash of frustration with Trump鈥檚 interruptions during their first debate, he at one point told the president to 鈥渟hut up.鈥
But mostly Biden shrugged off the attacks.
鈥楾hey are the future鈥
America鈥檚 oldest president-elect started his Capitol Hill career as one of the youngest senators ever, and would spend more than three decades in the upper chamber before becoming Obama鈥檚 deputy.
Biden鈥檚 campaign message was built largely on his association with the still-popular Obama and on his ability to do business with the many world leaders his former boss sent him to meet (鈥淚 know these guys,鈥 he would remind people).
His offer of moderate politics in a divisive time was a salve to an electorate exhausted by four years of scandal and chaos in the Trump White House.
But Biden balanced his mainstream appeal with a pledge to take genuinely progressive action as president, on climate change, racial injustice and student debt relief.
Come January, Americans may already be asking whether the elder statesman will seek to extend his role as US president beyond a first term, given his own words on the transitional nature of his candidacy.
鈥淟ook, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,鈥 Biden told a crowd at a rally in Detroit, Michigan back in March.
He gestured to younger Democrats who had joined him on stage 鈥 including the woman who would become his running mate, 56-year-old Senator Kamala Harris.
鈥淭here鈥檚 an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey are the future of this country.鈥
Historic comeback
Biden was anything but assured of becoming his party鈥檚 flagbearer. Despite being the favorite of the Democratic establishment, he was deemed by some too old or too centrist.
His campaign looked headed for disaster after disappointing primary losses to the fiery Bernie Sanders early this year.
But Biden came roaring back in South Carolina鈥檚 primary on the strength of overwhelming backing from African-American voters, a crucial base of Democratic support.
Clinching the nomination marked a sharp contrast to his 1988 flameout, when he quit in disgrace after being caught plagiarizing a speech by British politician Neil Kinnock.
In 2008 he hardly fared better, dropping out after mustering less than one percent of the vote in Iowa鈥檚 caucuses.
That year he was ultimately picked as running mate by Obama, who dubbed him 鈥淎merica鈥檚 happy warrior.鈥
As a senator for more than 30 years, Biden was known to forge unlikely alliances 鈥 and, like Trump, he developed a lack of fidelity to script.
He faced a reckoning among Democrats 鈥 including Harris, America鈥檚 next vice president 鈥 for working with known segregationists in the Senate and for opposing 鈥渂using鈥 policies in the 1970s aimed at transporting Black children to predominantly white schools.
He also caught flak for helping draft a 1994 crime bill which many Democrats believe drove up incarcerations, disproportionately affecting African Americans. Biden recently called the push a 鈥渕istake.鈥
Other Senate episodes also threatened to spoil his presidential campaign: his 2003 vote for the Iraq war, and his chairmanship of controversial hearings in 1991 in which Anita Hill accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
Last year he faced a storm over his own notoriously tactile approach with female voters that could suggest a man out of step with his modernizing party.
He apologized, and promised to be more 鈥渕indful鈥 of women鈥檚 personal space.
鈥楪et back up鈥
Biden relays the heart-wrenching details of his family stories so often that, despite his obvious grief, they have become part of a political brand.
The 1972 accident left his sons Beau, four, and Hunter, two, badly injured, and the 30-year-old Biden was sworn in beside their hospital beds.
Biden met his second wife, teacher Jill Jacobs, in 1975 and they married two years later. They have a daughter, Ashley.
Both boys recovered from their injuries and Beau followed his father into politics, becoming attorney general of Delaware 鈥 but the Democratic rising star died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46.
Lawyer and lobbyist Hunter Biden has had a different trajectory.
He received a lucrative salary serving on the board of a Ukrainian gas company accused of corruption while his father was vice president.
Trump鈥檚 push for Ukraine to investigate the Bidens led to the president鈥檚 impeachment last December by the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives, but he was acquitted by the Republican-led Senate.
Hunter was not personally accused of any criminal wrongdoing, but Trump wouldn鈥檛 let the issue die.
He repeatedly insisted the Bidens were a 鈥渃rime family鈥 getting rich off of corruption, but the accusations were of dubious origin and did not stick with American voters more concerned about bread and butter campaign issues, not to mention a once-in-a-lifetime public health crisis.
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was born Nov. 20, 1942 and raised in the Rust Belt town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, in an Irish-Catholic family.
His father was a car salesman, but when the city went through tough times in the 1950s and he lost his job, he moved the family to neighboring Delaware when Joe Biden was 10.
鈥淢y dad always said, 鈥楥hamp, when you get knocked down, you get back up,鈥欌 Biden says.
He made Delaware his political domain. As a young man he served as a lifeguard in a majority-Black neighborhood, an experience he said sharpened his awareness of systemic inequalities and strengthened his political interest.
Biden studied at the University of Delaware and the Syracuse University law school, and has expressed pride that he is not a product of the elite Ivy League.
He touts his working-class roots and recalls being hampered as a child by a stutter so bad he was cruelly nicknamed 鈥淒ash.鈥
But he overcame the condition, and on the campaign trail spoke about how he still counsels youngsters who stutter.
Biden would often point to Jill, 69, as a powerful asset for his campaign, and recalled how she took over as mother to her husband鈥檚 two boys.
鈥淪he put us back together,鈥 Biden has said.
鈥楶roud of me?鈥
鈥淚t never goes away,鈥 Biden said of the pain that lives within him since losing Beau. The tragedy prevented him from launching a presidential bid in 2016.
Even today, he often stops to greet firefighters, recalling that it was they who saved his boys.
They saved Biden too. In 1988 firefighters rushed him to hospital after an aneurysm.
Biden鈥檚 condition was so dire that a priest was called to give him last rites.
Nearly every Sunday Biden prays at St. Joseph on the Brandywine, a Catholic church in his affluent Wilmington neighborhood.
There in the cemetery rest his parents, his first wife and daughter 鈥 and his son Beau, under a tombstone decorated with small American flags.
In January Biden confided about Beau and his undeniable influence: 鈥淓very morning I get up鈥 and I think to myself, 鈥業s he proud of me?鈥欌
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