President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill will become the new residents of the White House when the 78-year-old Democrat takes office on Wednesday.
Biden has made his family a major focus of attention throughout his career, and his 2020 presidential campaign has put them fully in the spotlight. Some members caused controversy, but others broke barriers.
Here’s a look at the members of America’s new “first family”.
The First Lady
Educator Jill Biden is ready to transform her new role, even before moving to the White House.
While first ladies traditionally only perform ceremonial duties, Jill Biden plans to keep her full-time job as an English teacher.
As a first lady, she is expected to work on educational issues and relaunch ‘Joining Forces,’ a mission to mobilize military families that she and Michelle Obama started in 2011.
The Bidens met in 1975, a few years after the then Delaware senator faced the unthinkable: his young wife and daughter were killed in a car accident.
Biden regularly says that his second wife “reunited” his family.
The couple married in 1977 and became the “mother” of their children Hunter and Beau, who survived the accident. They have a common daughter, Ashley, who was born in 1981.
While raising her family, Jill Biden earned two master’s degrees and a doctorate in education.
She supported her husband through his three previous presidential appointments and was one of his most outspoken advocates and tireless activist during his most recent career.
The first children
Biden has often spoken of how his relationship with his children helped him cope with grief as he built his political career, and also when he married Jill.
For years, when he was a senator, he traveled two hours by train between Washington and the family home in Delaware to be there for Hunter and Beau.
Beau was seen as an heir to his father’s ethics and political skills. He served in the military in Iraq and became the Attorney General of Delaware.
But he died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46, less than two years after diagnosis.
Biden often refers to his dead son in political speeches and regularly visits his grave, as well as that of his first wife and daughter.
Biden’s other son, Hunter, has stayed further out of the spotlight. He fought alcohol and drug addiction and was fired from the Naval Reserve in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine.
It became a regular focus of Donald Trump’s attacks ahead of the November 3 vote for his company in Ukraine and China.
Hunter, 50, now a Los Angeles-based artist, admitted that he had shown “lack of judgment” in some of his acts, but denied doing anything wrong.
However, Biden was unwavering in his support of his son. During the last presidential debate, when Trump made fun of Hunter’s cocaine use, the former vice president said simply, “I’m proud of him. I’m proud of my son.”
The first pets
After Trump became the first president in more than a century to have no dog, the Bidens will bring two.
German Shepherds Champ and Major, as well as a cat, whose breed and name have yet to be disclosed, will move to the White House on January 20.
Champ has been with the Bidens since 2008. The family adopted Major in 2018. According to Biden’s team, he will be the first foster dog to live in the White House.
The canine companions appeared in one of Biden’s campaign ads warning voters to “choose their people wisely,” with clips of Trump making fun of the idea of a presidential mascot.
The two dogs also played a starring role in Bidens’ Christmas message.