HE is looking like the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential race as he extends his lead over rival Bernie Sanders. So who is the man who could go toe-to-toe with Trump?
Joe Biden…
Just one month ago, he was being written off after a poor performance in the New Hampshire primary - the first in a series of nationwide party primary elections to determine the party nominees for the presidential elections later in the year. He finished fifth and it seemed unlikely he would bounce back, but he has gone on to win a raft of primaries.
To secure the nomination you require…?
A candidate needs the backing of 1,991 delegates. After winning Michigan this week, Biden so far has 820 delegates, while Sanders has 670.
He’s 77?
He will turn 78 on November 20th, 17 days after the US election is due to be held. Trump will turn 74 in June and became president when he was 70, so is currently the oldest president in history. Biden, if elected president, would become the oldest Commander in Chief.
The White House is at least familiar?
The Pennsylvanian-born politician - first elected to the Senate in the 1970s - was vice president to Barack Obama from 2009 till 2017. He previously bid for the nomination ahead of the 1988 election, before withdrawing.
Because?
He was accused of plagiarism after making a speech containing an almost identical section to a chunk of a speech given by Labour Party leader, Neil Kinnock, in 1987, talking about his background and saying, “Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?” Biden said a few months later: “Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university?”
Sorrows?
In 1972, his first wife, Neilia, and one-year-old daughter were killed in a car accident. His two sons, Beau and Hunter, survived, but Beau died in 2015 at the age of 46 from a rare form of brain cancer.
Bromance?
Throughout Obama’s presidency, the pair’s chemistry was picked up on, often setting social media alight with images of them together becoming memes.
And just as they prepared to leave office in 2017, Obama surprised Biden by presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, saying he was "The best vice president America has ever had”, adding: "This also gives the internet one last chance to talk about our bromance”.
Straight talker?
In a clash over gun control with a factory worker in Michigan earlier this week, Biden - furious at being accused of wanting to take Americans' guns away - told the worker he was "full of ****" and to "not be such a horse's ***”.
Trump?
His most recent Biden tweet said simply: “I will protect your Social Security and Medicare, just as I have for the past 3 years. Sleepy Joe Biden will destroy both in very short order, and he won’t even know he’s doing it!”
MAUREEN SUGDEN
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