Joe Biden may be the Vice President of the United States, but how much do you really know about him? The 73-year-old has been around the block a few times, but he is still a relevant figure in the political community. However, despite the fact that Biden has spent a considerable amount of time in the spotlight and under the scrutiny of the public eye, there are still some things that many people don’t know. With that in mind, here we present our list of 15 things you probably didn’t know about Joe Biden. Check out part one below, and stay tuned for part two, coming soon!
Number Fifteen: He Came From Humble Beginnings. Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and his father managed a car dealership. Biden’s father called him “Champ” as a nickname growing up.
Number Fourteen: He Stuttered. Biden was teased by his classmates for his stutter growing up. He would practice reading in front of a mirror to try and stop stuttering, and he even became friends with a fellow stutterer in law school so they could help each other.
Number Thirteen: He Had a Dog Named Senator. Biden and his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, bought a puppy in 1967 while Biden as at Syracuse University College of Law. They named the dog Senator.
Number Twelve: He Is No Stranger to Tragedy. Just a few short weeks after he was elected Senator in 1972, Biden’s wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. He also nearly died from a brain aneurysm in 1988.
Number Eleven: He Has Two Children, But He Had Four. After Biden lost his first wife to tragedy, he went on to marry his current wife, Jill. They had one child together – a daughter named Ashley. Biden had three children with his previous wife, but his first daughter, Naomi, died in a car accident. He had two more sons with his first wife named Beau and Hunter, but Beau died of brain cancer in early 2015.
Number Ten: He Had Two Emergency Root Canals. During 1991’s Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination hearings, Biden was chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee. While he was the chair, he had to visit the dentist in the middle of the night for not one, but two root canals.
Number Nine: He Uses Amtrak. When he was a candidate for the Vice President in 2008, Biden still commuted to work between Wilmington, Delaware and Washington, D.C. using Amtrak.