Joe Biden announces his candidacy for the presidency in 2020

Biden, a centrist Democrat who often extols his relations with opponents, will also attack a Democratic party that feels more and more the lure of the left with a number of progressive candidates, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, in the 2020 Run.

"I am told that I am being criticized by the new left," Biden said at an event in Delaware last month. "I have the most progressive record of anyone running for United … those running."

Trump called a "dream" a general election showdown with the former vice president, while some Republicans staged Biden, who created a political brand aimed at attracting working-class voters, as Potential opponent of the Democrats for the President.

In recent weeks, Biden said he was about to prepare a campaign for 2020 after getting his family's approval to run for president for a third time. But he also acknowledged that he still had a number of hurdles to overcome, including fundraising, the digital strategy, the constitution of a diverse campaign team and the guarantee of money. a call to a Biden race.

"I can die of a happy man, having never lived in the White House, but what I do not want is to take the time, the efforts and the commitment of everyone, without it being clear that I could be the candidate, "said Biden late February. "It's something that I have to do to be able to make a major effort in this direction and make it clear where I think the country should go and how to do it."

But it seems that these concerns were appeased. While they were waiting for a decision, Biden's political team had been working quietly for months to lay the groundwork for a campaign, bring in donors and talk to potential employees.

The Biden announcement comes after allegations that he would have put women at ease in their encounters. The former vice president claimed that he did not think he had acted inappropriately in his interactions with voters, but had declared that he was ready to listen to women's experiences and that he was not going to listen to women's experiences. he would be more "attentive to the respect of the personal space in the future".

The debate on its interactions highlights the new reality of candidates in the post-MeToo era. When addressing the consequences of the charges, Biden's staff said the issue would not deter him from participating in the 2020 race, but his team was aware that his contact with voters during the election campaign could be scrutinized. throughout the presidential campaign.

This will mark Biden's third attempt for the White House after two unsuccessful attempts in 1988 and 2008. His first presidential bid was tainted with accusations that he plagiarized at the school of right and in campaign speeches. In 2008, he had retired from the presidential contest after a poor performance in the Iowa caucuses, ranking fifth with less than a percentage point.

Biden almost made a late entry into the 2016 campaign to challenge Hillary Clinton and Sanders in the Democratic primary, but finally decided not to run, largely because of the emotional shock that the death of his son Beau had taken on he and his family in 2015..

Biden is described as an "Obama-Biden Democrat", a sign that he would embrace the Obama administration's mantle in a presidential campaign. The former vice president led most of the first polls among potential Democratic Party candidates and benefited from strong name recognition and favorability ratings, which increased in the years following his departure. of the public service.

At the end of last year, Biden declared himself "president of the country's most qualified party", his supporters pointing out that his political experience of more than four decades was a boon for a possible campaign.

Throughout his career in Washington, Biden has embraced the blue-collar message of the middle class, plunged into foreign policy debates and talked about the need to engage in bipartisanship. During last fall's election campaign, he introduced the election as a "battle for the soul of the United States" theme that will be at the heart of his presidential campaign.

But his more than forty years in the public service also carry a bit of political baggage, as several areas of his career should be the subject of a new election campaign – including his treatment of Anita Hill in confirmation hearings. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's hearings focused on the financial services industry – which is based in his home state of Delaware – his earlier views on school transportation and even his gaffes.

"I'm a machine gaffe, but my God how wonderful compared to a guy who can not tell the truth," said Biden in December. "I am ready to plead all these things, the question is, what kind of nation do we become, what are we going to do, who are we?"

Biden tried to ward off criticism expected earlier this year, expressing regret for his handling of criminal justice issues – particularly the crime bill that he helped draft in 1994, which according to the criticism, led to an era of mass incarceration.

"I have not always been right – I know we have not always done things right, but I've always tried," said Biden at a breakfast organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. in January.

Mr. Biden also repeatedly expressed his regret for handling Hill's testimony at the Thomas case hearings, although critics say he could have done more in his role as chairman of the committee. of the Senate at the time.

"To this day, I regret not having found a way to give her the kind of audience that she deserved, given the courage that she showed in contacting us," said Biden. at an event in New York last month.

In recent months, Biden has defended his work with Republicans while he was under fire from critics for hiring a Michigan GOP congressman during a paid speech a few weeks before the mid-election. -mandate.

"Bless me, father, because I've sinned," Biden said as he made the sign of the cross by addressing the Mayors' Conference in the United States earlier this year. "Where I come from, I do not know how you can do anything, I do not know how you do anything unless we start talking to each other again."

But he was also confronted with the realities of the current political environment. In a speech in Omaha, Nebraska this year, Biden described current vice president Mike Pence as "honest guy," a comment that sparked the fury of the left because of Pence's stance on rights. LGBTQ. After being summoned by actress and activist Cynthia Nixon, Biden quickly resumed her comments on Twitter, writing: "There is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights , and that includes the vice president. "

Biden will be among the oldest candidates in the Democratic primary and he has acknowledged that his age would be a "legitimate problem" for voters and opponents.

Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1942, Biden, who overcame stuttering as a child, often praises his education in Pennsylvania and Delaware as emblematic of the concerns of working-class families.

At the age of 29, Biden is elected Delaware's representative to the US Senate. where he served for 36 years. During that time, he sat on the Senate Committees on the Judiciary and External Relations, presiding over each of them. Among his most proud legislative achievements – be the author of the law on violence against women.

After the failure of Biden's presidential candidacy in 2008, Sen-then. Barack Obama asked the Delaware senator to join the Democratic ticket as a candidate for the vice presidency, a bid initially denied by Biden.

Just before leaving office in 2017, Obama surprised Biden by awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor.

"Knowing Joe Biden, is knowing unpretentious love, service without self-esteem and living life to the fullest," Obama said at the time.

Biden, a fervent Catholic who had two brain aneurysms in 1988, tells a moving personal story, publicly enduring more tragedies than most political figures.

A few weeks after his Senate election at the age of 29, Biden's wife, Neilia, and his 13-month-old daughter Naomi, were killed in a car accident, which also injured badly his young sons, Beau and Hunter. Biden was later sworn into the Senate at the bedside of his son Beau. A few years later, Biden married Jill Jacobs and they had a daughter, Ashley.

The tragedy struck the Biden family a second time in 2015, when Beau, Delaware's Attorney General and war veteran in Iraq, died after a battle against brain cancer – a moment that the former vice-president President recounted in his memoirs: "Promise me, dad."

Since leaving the White House, Biden has set up a network of initiatives including his American Cap Cap Project, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, the Biden Institute from the University of Delaware, the Biden Foundation and the Biden Cancer Initiative. The Biden Foundations planned to suspend their activities once Biden announced his presidential campaign.

Mr. Biden was also one of the most prominent Democratic substitutes in the mid-term elections of 2018, outlining arguments for a possible presidential campaign at rallies across the country. .