Joe Biden

---
name: "Joe Biden"
relatedPeople:
  - "al-gore"
  - "fergie"
  - "emily-deschanel"
  - "chris-cornell"
date: "2013-02-04"
sources:
  - sourceTitle: "Vice Presidents – 2012 Election Center"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/vice-presidents.html"
  - sourceTitle: "Megan Smolenyak: Joe Biden's Irish Roots"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.huffingtonpost.com/megan-smolenyak-smolenyak/joe-bidens-irish-roots_b_1641678.html"
  - sourceTitle: "Joe Biden's Religion: Catholicism or Leftism?"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/330511/joe-biden-s-religion-catholicism-or-leftism-dennis-prager#"
  - sourceTitle: "Articles: Joe Biden, 'Practicing Catholic.'"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/joe_biden_practicing_catholic.html"
  - sourceTitle: "Catholic bishop says Joe Biden should not receive communion"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.humanevents.com/2012/10/16/catholic-bishop-says-joe-biden-should-not-receive-communion/"
  - sourceTitle: "Joe Biden on the Issues"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/joe_biden.htm"
  - sourceTitle: "Biden 'comfortable' with same-sex marriage"
    sourceUrl: "http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-05-07/politics/35456276_1_vice-president-biden-biden-spokesman-gay-couples"
  - sourceTitle: "Obama: Biden's remarks on gay marriage forced me to move up announcement, but no hard feelings"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-biden-remarks-gay-marriage-forced-move-announcement-hard-feelings-article-1.1075641"
  - sourceTitle: "Iran to be 'held accountable' for assassination plot, says Joe Biden"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8822267/Iran-to-be-held-accountable-for-assassination-plot-says-Joe-Biden.html"
  - sourceTitle: "Joseph R. Biden, Jr"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.cfr.org/experts/world/joseph-r-biden-jr/b1451"
  - sourceTitle: "Joe Biden on guns: White House eying 19 executive actions"
    sourceUrl: "http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/biden-guns-executive-actions-86187.html"
summaries:
  religion: "Biden is a Catholic who won't impose Catholic doctrine on his constituency."
  politicalViews: "Biden is basically a standard Democrat."
---

Joe Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and grew up there, in Wilmington, Delaware and in Claymont, Delaware.

Biden is a Catholic<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2Felection%2F2012%2Fvice-presidents.html" title="Vice Presidents – 2012 Election Center">[1]</a> and he is a descendent of Irish Catholic immigrants.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fmegan-smolenyak-smolenyak%2Fjoe-bidens-irish-roots_b_1641678.html" title="Megan Smolenyak: Joe Biden&apos;s Irish Roots">[2]</a>

Perhaps Biden's most famous reference to his faith came during the 2012 vice-presidential debates, where Biden squared-off with Republican candidate Paul Ryan–also a Catholic. When both candidates were asked their views on abortion, Ryan took a pro-life stance, citing his church's position on the issue, and Biden went the other direction, saying:

>My religion defines who I am. And I've been a practicing Catholic my whole life… With regard to abortion, I accept my church's position on abortion as a — what we call de fide doctrine. Life begins at conception. That's the Church's judgment. I accept it in my personal life. But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews and — I just refuse to impose that on others, unlike my friend here, the congressman.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalreview.com%2Farticles%2F330511%2Fjoe-biden-s-religion-catholicism-or-leftism-dennis-prager%23" title="Joe Biden&apos;s Religion: Catholicism or Leftism?">[3]</a>

It's a view informed by the philosophy of separation of church and state and a tolerance of the wide array of religious belief systems present in the United States. However, Biden's critics were quick to jump on the comment, questioning Biden's faith<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.americanthinker.com%2F2012%2F10%2Fjoe_biden_practicing_catholic.html" title="Articles: Joe Biden, &apos;Practicing Catholic.&apos;">[4]</a> and calling him out as a hypocrite.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalreview.com%2Farticles%2F330511%2Fjoe-biden-s-religion-catholicism-or-leftism-dennis-prager%23" title="Joe Biden&apos;s Religion: Catholicism or Leftism?">[5]</a> Certain members of the Catholic clergy even suggested that Biden was not qualified to take Catholic communion.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.humanevents.com%2F2012%2F10%2F16%2Fcatholic-bishop-says-joe-biden-should-not-receive-communion%2F" title="Catholic bishop says Joe Biden should not receive communion">[6]</a>

Fair enough, but that's politics. You don't just fly in the face of your party ideology–especially during an election year.


## "Middle class Joe" walks the halls of power

Biden is a Democrat and his political career spans over four decades. At the time this article was written, he was serving his second term as the vice-president of the United States of America–referred to by some as the second-most powerful man in the world.

For a good synopsis of his political positions, check out this [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Joe_Biden) article or this [webpage](http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/joe_biden.htm) from On The Issues.org.

Suffice it to say, he takes a fairly standard Democratic view on most everything: Pro-life, pro-environment, higher taxes on the wealthy, an expansion of government programs/regulatory agencies in most arenas of society,<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ontheissues.org%2Fsenate%2Fjoe_biden.htm" title="Joe Biden on the Issues">[7]</a> "comfortable" with same-sex marriage,<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Farticles.washingtonpost.com%2F2012-05-07%2Fpolitics%2F35456276_1_vice-president-biden-biden-spokesman-gay-couples" title="Biden &apos;comfortable&apos; with same-sex marriage">[8]</a> etc, etc, etc. In fact, it was Biden's off-hand comment about gay marriage that sort of opened the floodgates and put pressure on Obama to also endorse gay marriage, a first for a sitting president.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fobama-biden-remarks-gay-marriage-forced-move-announcement-hard-feelings-article-1.1075641" title="Obama: Biden&apos;s remarks on gay marriage forced me to move up announcement, but no hard feelings">[9]</a>

He does diverge a bit here and there. For example, he considers high corporate taxes as an incentive for business to outsource their employment needs to foreign countries<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ontheissues.org%2Fsenate%2Fjoe_biden.htm" title="Joe Biden on the Issues">[10]</a> and he can be a bit heavy-handed with his remarks on foreign policy, saying countries like Iran<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworldnews%2Fnorthamerica%2Fusa%2F8822267%2FIran-to-be-held-accountable-for-assassination-plot-says-Joe-Biden.html" title="Iran to be &apos;held accountable&apos; for assassination plot, says Joe Biden">[11]</a> and China<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cfr.org%2Fexperts%2Fworld%2Fjoseph-r-biden-jr%2Fb1451" title="Joseph R. Biden, Jr">[12]</a>  should be held "accountable" for their actions. Though he says circumstances would have to be quite extreme for the U.S. to give up on diplomacy and resort to military intervention.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ontheissues.org%2Fsenate%2Fjoe_biden.htm" title="Joe Biden on the Issues">[13]</a>

As this article is being written, Biden's primary focus has been a task force regarding gun control in response to the Sandy Hook school shooting. Conclusions so far include a renewed effort to ban private ownership of assault rifles, a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines/clips, and universal background checks for gun buyers.<a class="source-citation" href="#http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com%2Fstory%2F2013%2F01%2Fbiden-guns-executive-actions-86187.html" title="Joe Biden on guns: White House eying 19 executive actions">[14]</a> Of course, this has the conservative sector of American society quite up-in-arms (pun intended). Check out conservative pundit Alex Jones' incredible [response](http://www.upworthy.com/angry-gun-advocate-loses-it-live-on-cnn-in-the-most-bizarre-interview-ever) to potential gun measures as an example.

There is much speculation that Biden will be the Democrat's presidential candidate in 2016. When/if that happens, we'll be updating this article and very much looking forward to your comments.

Marimar Au

Religious Beliefs

Climate Change

Gun Control

LGBTQ+

Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Women's Rights

Drugs

Venezuela

Death Penalty

Fact about the LGBTQ+ views of Joe Biden

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