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Rev. Al Sharpton urges Black Chicago to take back America

Black faith leaders rally behind Kim Foxx in States Attorneys race

By Erick Johnson

With a week left for the Presidential and local General Elections, civil rights leader Al Sharpton visited Chicagos South Shore neighborhood on Tuesday, October 27, where he and Black leaders led a passionate press conference as they urged residents to take their frustrations to the polls and vote for their future.

The press conference resembled a spirited pep rally where Black leaders cheered on Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx, as she defended her record as a reformer and attacked Republican opponent Pat OBrien, accusing him of being a prosecutor who helped make Cook County the False Confession Capital of America.

Foxx was among several Black leaders who spoke passionately at a press conference that stressed the importance of voting as racial hostilities permeate political races on local, state, and federal levels. Black neighborhoods and cities struggle to survive under President Donald Trump. In 2016, many Blacks in Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida did not vote as Trump became the nations 45th president.

Today, Blacks young and old are flooding polls across the country. In Chicagos Black wards, many wait in long lines for hours to cast their ballots during Early Voting. Trumps opponent, Democratic candidate Joe Biden, is making final campaign stops in big states, including Florida and Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, he campaigned in Georgia, where no Democratic president has won since 1992, when Bill Clinton defeated Republican George H.W. Bush.

As of October 27, nearly 65 million Americans have already cast their ballots during Early Voting. However, many more in Chicago and across the country have yet to cast their ballots in a race that may smash voter turnout records, including that of 2008, when more Blacks than whites went to the polls to elect Barack Obama as Americas first Black president.

Twelve years later, Black America is worse off than four years ago. The Black unemployment is higher than that of whites and Hispanics. Racial tensions and police shootings continue to rise. The percentage of Blacks dying from COVID-19 remains higher than any other ethnic group. And more than ever, there are concerns that Blacks are moving backward. And with the future of Obamacare and the Supreme Court in doubt, Sharpton and Chicagos Black leaders say they believe this election will be the most consequential in the nations history.

During his 20-minute speech at the South Shore Cultural Center, Sharpton said this past summer that was filled with police shootings and violent protests has made the voting even more important.

Today and all the way to next Tuesday, millions of us are going to the polls complaining, he said. We had to march to vote. We had to fight to vote. People laid down and went to jail to vote. None of us have the right not to use a vote that exists in the blood of fathers. When we dont vote, we get whatever thats left over.

We need to have unprecedented numbers. Chicago is where we saw our political and economic capital get started. Its where we saw Black businesses emerge as powerhouses. Its where our people rise like [Congressman] William Dawson and [Mayor Harold Washington].

While in Chicago, Sharpton promoted his book, fittingly titled, Rise Up: Confronting a Country at the Crossroads. At the South Shore Cultural Center, David Cherry, President of the Leaders Network; Pastor Ira Acree; Reverend Cy Fields; Reverend Marshall Hatch; Congressman Danny Davis and Reverend Jesse Jackson, Jr. were also present.

Sharpton was scheduled to attend a vigil in Waukegan, Illinois, later that day to remember Marcellis Stinnette, a Black 19-year-old who was shot and killed by a police officer, who was later fired from the force. Stinnettes girlfriend, Tafara Williams, was also shot, but she is recovering in a hospital. The FBI has joined Illinois State Police in investigating the shooting.

They should not only fire him, they need to prosecute him, Sharpton said., Were not anti-police, but police are not above the law.

At the press conference, Jacob Blake Sr., the father of Jacob Blake Jr., stood near Sharpton as he spoke. In August, Jacob Blake Jr. was shot seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The shooting sparked weeks of social unrest. Unlike many Black victims killed by police, Jacob Blake, Jr. is still alive and recovering. No charges have been brought against the officer who shot him.

Police issues take center stage in the race for Cook County States Attorney. Foxx faces OBrien, who this summer turned up his attack on the countys first Black female states attorney after incidents of looting and social unrest grew after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer.

Foxx has vacated many convictions of victims of corrupt Chicago police officers who were found to have forced many Black and Latino males to confess to crimes they did not commit. In 2017, her office stopped prosecuting people who were driving with suspended licenses. This year, Foxx vacated more than 1,000 marijuana convictions just before marijuana became legal earlier this year on January 1.

During her first term in office, Foxx raised the felony threshold for theft from $300 to $1,000. As looting and thefts in the Loop and Mag Mile increased, so did OBriens accusations that Foxx is too soft on criminals as the countys top prosecutor. There is also the Jussie Smollett case, where her office dropped all charges after the Empire actor was charged with staging a homophobic hate crime in Streeterville in 2019.

At the press conference, Foxx reaffirmed her commitment to bringing fairness to Cook Countys notorious criminal justice system. She recalled how growing up in the Cabrini Green public housing projects shaped her. She reminded the crowd about OBriens days as a prosecutor in the 1980s, where he had four innocent Black teenagers convicted of raping a white woman based on wrongful confessions. They were later cleared by DNA evidence.

When I ran for this office in 2016, I ran unapologetically as someone who has compassion and as a prosecutor who worked in this very office, Foxx said. I remind those that when I came here in 2016 in the wake of the Laquan McDonald case, it was before we had a consent decree put on our police department. It was one promise that I as your prosecutor could, in fact, ensure you had a justice system that was fair and bereft of the things weve seen before. We cannot ignore history that predates this moment. We cannot go backwards.

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'Get out and vote' | The Crusader Newspaper Group - The Chicago Cusader

The Ontario County Sheriffs Office provided an update on the officer-involved shooting that happened at the Woodridge Motel on Tuesday.

According to a press release Supreme Hines, 27, of Canandaigua was on parole for a third-degree burglary conviction. Officer Jeffrey Smith, 57, of Rochester went to the motel to take Hines into custody on a violation warrant.

He had been arrested on October 29th for separate counts of petit larceny after stealing liquor from stores in the town and city of Geneva.

Sheriff Henderson offered a correction to earlier reports that there was a second person in the vehicle. He said in the press release that it wasnt the case.

Hines remains in stable condition at Strong Memorial Hospital. The press release indicates that he will be transported to the Ontario County Jail to be held on the parole warrant.

The shooting remains under investigation, but the circumstances that led to it have been contested by Hines family.

Sheriff Henderson said on Tuesday that it happened around 8:15 a.m. when Hines attempted to flee parole officers. The officer who became trapped on the hood of the vehicle according to the Sheriffs account was the one that fired his service weapon.

Hines was struck three times.

Sheriff Henderson also said that there were other witnesses being interviewed at the time.

UPDATE: Parolee shot three times after attempting to flee arrest at Canandaigua motel

Trust me its the last thing any of us want to do is have to use deadly force, but in this case the parole officer needed to make sure he was safe. He was clinging to the roof of a motor vehicle that is accelerating at a high rate of speed so obviously he chose to use this level of force and again through out this investigation working with the district attorneys office, well deem if this was an appropriate level of force, Henderson added.

Damita Bonnemere, the mother of Hines, spoke with the Finger Lakes Times hours after the entire incident unfolded.

My son is not a violent offender, Damita Bonnemere said. Maybe they were right in trying to arrest him, but wrong to use deadly force. This is happening too often.

Hines was airlifted by Mercy Flight from the scene of the shooting. Bullet holes could be seen in the vehicle at the scene.

My son was a low-level, non-violent offender. He has never been convicted of violence of any kind, she added in her conversation with the FLT.He was literally backing away from the parole officer when he unholstered his gun and fired. The parole officer jumped onto the car.

The incident wasnt captured on body cameras, so there is no video evidence of the shooting.

We are not trying to play games here. That is just how we are doing this right now, Henderson added speaking with the FLT. Trust me, we are doing a thorough investigation here. We are putting everything together and will consult with the DAs office on future charges for this individual (Hines) and the discharge of a duty firearm.

Bonnemere told the FLT that she plans to contact Rev. Al Sharpton and organize at least one protest. She was concerned that the parole officer came without a social worker despite the fact that Hines suffered from mental health and substance use problems.

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Sheriff gives update on Canandaigua shooting; family says at least one protest will happen - FingerLakes1.com

This may be the strangest election in history in that there is no evidence that any sizable group of people want Biden for president.

Its his fourth time running for that office.

This year, Biden lost three primaries in a row, coming in fourth in the Iowa caucus, fifth in New Hampshire a distant second in Nevada. At the end of February, he had accumulated a paltry 14 delegates compared to 45 for Bernie Sanders and 26 for Pete Buttigieg.

Then James Clyburn said, Vote for Biden and African-Americans in South Carolina voted for Biden. (Although the Black vote is NOT monolithic, they decided to make an exception this one time and vote monolithically.)

Democrats never looked back.

Biden has nothing going for him no constituency, no fanatical supporters, just a career in politics that stretches back 50 years.

Bill Clinton had Southern Democrats and baby boomers. Gore had the global warming zealots. George Bush had conservative Christians and Texans. Even Hillary had fanatical supporters. Remember the PUMAs (Party Unity My A$$)? How about the weeping loons at the Javits Center on election night 2016?

Yes, much of Trumps vote hated Hillary, but surely at least 70 percent of them actually supported Trump. Ninety-nine percent of Bidens vote is: I Hate Trump.

How did Joe Biden become the nominee? Because he was the candidate most acceptable to Black people. Why? Because he was Obamas vice president. Theres a coalition built on rock.

Combine the empty suit from Delaware with Kamala Harris, who was polling at about 2 percent among Democrats before she dropped out of the primaries. Harris added nothing to the ticket except Bidens ridiculously narrow, self-imposed requirement that his vice president be a woman of color.

Unfortunately for him, there just arent a lot of massively impressive Black women who are elected Democrats right now. Barbara Jordan is dead. Shirley Chisholm is dead. Either of them would have been chosen over Kamala.

When Harris campaign crashed and burned, I thought Id embarrassed myself by predicting she would be the Democrats 2020 presidential nominee back in 2016 before Id ever heard her speak before shed even won her Senate race.

But on this, I was right: She strokes all the medias erogenous zones.

Shes got the Hollywood glamour!

Why, I think shes even better looking than Michelle Obama! Not as gorgeous as Beyonc, but beauty like THAT only happens once a century.

(Harris will be in a dozen Vogue fashion shoots.)

She wears sneakers, and cited Tupac as the best rapper alive. (Wait, what? Oh, we didnt know Tupac was murdered in Las Vegas 20 years ago, either.)

Shes presentable in Hollywood and the Hamptons.

Poor Al Sharpton has been lurking around for 30 years, but Kamala is someone we can invite to our apartments.

Harris isnt a huge hit with the Democratic base. Shes a hit with the people who make decisions for the party.

If voters had been forced to focus on Harris, Trump wouldve won in a landslide. But this election was entirely a referendum on Trump. Its irrelevant who hes running against. Maybe if they had dug up Hitler to run against him other issues would have come up, but even thats not a sure thing.

Harris sent out a tweet the day before the election saying, Theres a big difference between equality and equity, along with a video demanding that we all end up at the same place.

Shes not saying everyone should have an equal opportunity, but that everyone should get the same stuff.

Suburban women? Harris wants to move poor people next door to you whether they can afford the house or not.

Its as if Harris was running a test: Do people even care what were running on?

Democrats could come out for vivisection of little children. No one cares!

A significant share of the electorate was voting for Anyone But Trump.

The media had whipped enough of the population into such a blind Trump hatred that the Democrats vetting process for Biden was: Whats your name? OK, youll do.

What happens if this bland, place-holding figurehead is sworn in as president? Assume on Jan. 20th, Trumps gone. Now what?

The media cant blame the next Black man killed by cops on Trump and they cant turn off the coronavirus panic.

Does the virus suddenly go away because someone new is in the White House? The toughest job for the media is going to be coming up with an excuse to put Trump on the front page once hes gone.

Have they thought about what happens next?

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Stay tuned to see what happens next | Opinion | indianagazette.com - Indiana Gazette

Like most of you, Ive been glued to the TV for what feels like the last 10 years. The last week has marched on at an agonizingly slow pace as we watched polling turn into votes and votes turn into whatever is going on right now. Luckily for me, I have a tried-and-true outlet to distract myself while Im going on hour 72 (98? 193?) of watching CNN: dissecting what the men of cable news are wearing. Picture watching sports with a very invested fan; thats essentially what watching the news is like with me. Except instead of yelling about goals or strikes or whatever goes on in sports I truly do not know, Im sorry I am yelling, That suit doesnt fit! and Oh, thats a good tie! at the TV. So lets break down some of what Ive witnessed during these trying times.

John King moderating a CNN sponsored debate at the Mesa Arts Center in Arizona.

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

I dont know if its the fact that Im a born and bred New Englander like John or some election coverage-induced Stockholm syndrome, but somewhere between Florida being called and the late-night Trump press conference I decided that John King is kinda hunky! With his piercing blue eyes and silver hair he certainly makes watching that magic wall for hours on end somewhat easier on the eyes. But weve gotta talk about his suits. His color choices? Impeccable: the rich navy he wears complements his hair beautifully and he always opts for a crisp white shirt, which as I have said about six thousand times, is always advisable. And while King is built THICC, as I believe the kids call it and this is hot! his suits do not accommodate his size; the seams look like they are screaming, the back vents flare out, and the whole thing is an inch to an inch and a half too short. If he sized up and went with a long instead of what appears to be a regular, it would make all the difference.

Don Lemon attends CNN Heroes at the American Museum of Natural History in 2019.

Mike Coppola / Getty Images for WarnerMedia

Don Lemon honestly can do no wrong when it comes to his fashion choices; he is a masterclass in unique anchor style that doesnt feel quirky or like its trying too hard to stand out. Couple of style choices of note that Lemon makes. Number one: texture. Instead of opting for a flat wool or worsted jacket every night, Lemon is not afraid to rock a sharp tweed often in a warm brown or gray hue. It makes him look like the modern version of the quintessential old-timey newscaster and it really really works. Another critical sartorial move on Lemons part is to play with proportions. He regularly opts for a wider or peak lapel which could look garish on the wrong person or styled the wrong way, but he almost always pairs it with a plain shirt and an understated (but still stylish and not conservative!) tie, which makes it all work.

Chris Cuomo of CNNs Cuomo Prime Time attends the WarnerMedia Upfront 2019 arrivals.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images for WarnerMedia

I wish I had such gracious things to say about Lemons partner in crime, Chris Cuomo; like King, hes a little on the thicker side and also a babe. (Again this might be Stockholm syndrome talking, so bear with me.) But why why the hell does Chris insist on wearing a black suit every single night? First of all, no. Second of all, a black suit is a very particular style choice. Unless you are an undertaker or a reservoir dog, it takes much skill and precision to pull off. Chris Cuomo is neither, and his choice to style it with a white shirt, black tie and white pocket square is just truly baffling. And I know this is something Lemon rags on him for, and rightly so! Cuomo is impeccably groomed and truly a hunky sweetheart, so I know hes got it in him to pull off a better style choice.

Chris Wallace as he moderates the first presidential debate of 2020.

Olivier Douliery-Pool / Getty Images

Chris Wallace is essentially what I picture in my minds eye when someone says old white male journalist. And thats not a complete indictment of him! Or at least not his style, anyway. Wallace is a decent template for any older gent who wants to look conservative but not outdated; his suits generally fit on the more classic side, with a little more room in the shoulders and body than I would typically recommend, but they make sense on him. He plays it safe with his shirt and tie choices, which I commend far more than some of his colleagues who look like bloviating wanna-be Patrick Batemans if he were in politics.

Jim Acosta before the start of a briefing in the Brady Room of the White House in 2018.

Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images

My first awareness of Jim Acosta came a few years ago when my mother deemed him the George Clooney of CNN, and remarked that hes the kind of guy you like running into at the water cooler at work. And shes right; Acosta has a distinguished yet boyish charm that makes listening to the news about Trump just a little easier. His style choices are usually on the safe side; typical reporter garb navy and gray suits that fit mostly OK, simple shirts and ties, etc. But something odd has been happening to Jim in the last few months: his deliciously gray hair has turned brown, save for some grey roots after what I can only surmise is an understandably misguided pandemic decision to start coloring his hair. Jim, if youre reading this: please I beg of you, just let your hair go grey. A luscious head of grey hair is one of the most sought-after attributes a man can have! Embrace it. (Also if you are reading this I am single and my DMs are open.)

Al Sharpton attends 2019 Urban One Honors at MGM National Harbor on December 05, 2019.

Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Al Sharptons look is a testament to knowing what looks good on you, knowing what you can pull off, and leaning as far into it as possible. Sharpton has a pretty distinctive style; he offsets his trim frame with wide lapels, bold patterns, and chunky tie knots. Not a combination the average bloke could manage to make look sleek, but Sharpton pulls it off with aplomb. This is in part thanks to his bravado; his presence carries the bold style choices so they dont overwhelm him. Its also thanks to impeccable and I mean literally perfect tailoring. The man literally looks like hes poured into his suits and its truly a pleasure to watch as he delivers the news and they move effortlessly with him.

Steve Kornacki interviews Sen. Amy Klobuchar at The Texas Tribune Festival on September 28, 2019.

Sergio Flores / Getty Images

Look, Kornacki is just adorable. Is he the best-dressed guy reporting the news? No. Does he look like he picked his clothes up off the floor and got dressed? Yes. Is that because he seems to be running on less than 20 minutes of sleep? Very likely and understandable! And you know what, all things considered, he looks pretty good. I give Kornacki credit, too, for foregoing a jacket or suit and opting instead for trousers, a shirt and tie. It reflects the mood of whats going on with more accuracy than a bunch of anchors in suits and pressed shirts. This is not business as usual and theres a weird comfort in turning on my TV having eaten nothing but yogurt and potato chips all day to see Kornacki frantically updating tallies in his slightly more casual attire.

Tucker Carlson in discussion at the National Review Institutes Ideas Summit on March 29, 2019.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Finally, what list of men in cable news would be complete without roasting Tucker Carlson, er, I mean, critiquing his fashion choices. I went to prep school and Carlson looks like every dickish bro who skated through on mediocre grades and parents who contributed heavily to the annual fund. Carlson never met a printed shirt or collegiate tie he didnt like, and I cannot explain why, but in all the times I have seen him my brain registered him as wearing a button-down collar shirt despite a cursory Google search of him indicating this not being the case. I think its just because hes a button-down-collar kind of guy, the same way I cant say for certain but I know hes wearing some sort of plaid boxer and that he definitely has multiple jackets in his closet with gold buttons.

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Which Cable-News Guy Is the Best Dressed of Election 2020? - InsideHook

Joe Biden speaks in Wilmington, Delaware, about the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, June 30, 2020.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

Joe Biden was one of the youngest people to be elected to the Senate and is one of the oldest to run for president.

Biden served eight years as President Barack Obama's vice president but decided not to seek the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential nomination. That decision cleared the way for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to run in the election, which ended in a shocking upset by then-novice politician Donald Trump.

The former vice president balked again at seeking the 2020 nomination but announced his candidacy on April 25, 2019, at age 76, despite his personal concerns about his age and the effect of a presidential run on his family. He said one major motivation was Trump's declaration after the deadly neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that there were "very fine people on both sides."

"With those words, the president of the United States assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and thosewith the courage to stand against it,"Biden said in a 3-minute video announcing his candidacy."At that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime. ... We are in the battle for the soul of this nation."

So now, the quintessential D.C. insider is trying to dislodge the incomparable outsider from the White House. It's the third time he has run for president, stumbling in bids for the nomination in 1988 and 2008.

For a profile of President Donald Trump, see: How President Donald Trump got to Election Day in a turbulent 2020

Biden was on the mat in the first two 2020 nominating contests, with poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, finishing in fourth place in the former and picking up zero delegates in the latter. He was in such bad shape that he left the Granite State even before the polls closed on Feb. 11 and raced to his do-or-die state, South Carolina, which voted 18 days later.

Picking up the crucial endorsement of Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state's most powerful Democrat and the highest-ranking Black member of Congress, Biden won the first presidential primary of his life. He crushed the field of seven candidates, winning 48% of the vote, with the runner-up, Sen. Bernie Sanders, winning 20%. Biden wound up sweeping all but eight states in the primaries and caucuses.

Days before the Democratic National Convention, Biden selected as his vice presidential candidate one of his primary opponents, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, despite her evisceration of him in the first Democratic debate for his opposition to busingduring the 1970s and '80s. She is the first woman of color to be chosen for a major party ticket.

"I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person," Biden said. "I need someone who understands the pain that so many people in our nation are suffering. Whether they've lost their job, their business, a loved one to this virus. ... This president says he 'doesn't want to be distracted by it.' ... If we're going to get through these crises we need to come together and unite for a better America. Kamala gets that."

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was bornNov. 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the oldest of four children of Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden and Biden Sr. The elder Bidenworked as a furnace cleaner and used-car salesman. In a search of a better job, he moved the family to Delaware when Joe Jr. was 10.

As a boy, Biden had to fight taunts from classmates because he stuttered.

After graduating from the University of Delaware, Biden married Neilia Hunter in August 1966 and graduated from Syracuse University Law School two years later. The Bidens moved to Claymont, Delaware, where he began practicing law and was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1969.

Two years later, at age 29, he won a stunning upset in a U.S. Senate race, defeating two-term Republican J. Caleb Boggs, who also had served two terms in the House and two terms as governor. Six weeks after that triumph, while Biden went to Washington to check out his new office, his wife took their two young sons and year-old daughter to shop for a Christmas tree. The car she was driving was involved in a crash with a tractor-trailer. Neilia and their daughter, Naomi, were killed, and sons Beau, 3, and 2-year-old Hunter were seriously injured.

Then Sen.-elect Joseph Biden swears to his U.S. citizenship at the office of the Secretary of the Senate. Biden, who just turned 30 at the time, became the youngest Senator in the 93rd Congress on Jan. 3, 1973. Left is William Ridgely, Senate financial officer, and center is Frank Valeo, secretary of the Senate.

Bettmann | Getty Images

Biden considered giving up the Senate seat but decided otherwise. He was sworn in on Jan. 5, 1973, in a chapel at the Wilmington Medical Center, where Beau and Hunter were treated. Just six weeks before the small ceremony, Biden had turned 30, the minimum age to serve in the upper chamber.

"One of my earliest memories was being in that hospital, my Dad always at our side. We, my brother and I, not the Senate, were all he cared about," Beau Biden recalled at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. "He decided not to take the oath of office. He said then, 'Delaware can always get another senator, but my boys can't get another father.' However, great men, great men like Ted Kennedy, Mike Mansfield, Hubert Humphrey men who had been tested in their own right convinced him to serve. He was sworn in at the hospital, at my bedside."

Thus began Biden's 36 years in the Senate. Rather than moving to Washington, he commuted by Amtrak four hours a day for the 110-mile trip from Wilmington to the nation's capital, so he could be with his sons in Delaware.

It was a tradition he kept for his entire career on Capitol Hill. Four years into his first term, Biden married Jill Jacobs Stevenson, a teacher he had met on a blind date. She became the stepmother of Biden's sons and in 1981 the mother of the couple's daughter, Ashley.

Joe Biden greets his wife, Jill, on the fourth night of the Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center on August 20, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Win McNamee | Getty Images

In the Senate, Biden became chairman of the Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees.

In the mid-1970s, he was a leading opponent of using busing against racial segregation of schools in Northern states such as Delaware, aligning himself with Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. His stance came back to haunt him during a 2019 presidential debate, when Harris attacked him for working with segregationists.

"There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day," she said. "And that little girl was me."

Staggered, Biden said it was a "mischaracterization" of his position."What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education," he said.

Biden was floor manager of the 1984 Comprehensive Crime Control Act, which toughened penalties for criminals. As Judiciary Committee chairman, he helped draft the1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which expanded the federal death penalty, banned assault weapons and provided for harsher standards for crack cocaine violations than for powdered forms of the drug. The crack provisions disproportionately affected Black people. In early 2019, three months before launching his presidential campaign, Biden called his role in backing the anti-crime measures "a big mistake."

In another move he came to regret, Biden led the interrogation of Anita Hill at the Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing for Clarence Thomas as a Supreme Court justice in 1991.

Then-Sen. Joseph Biden holds up the book "Order and Law" by Charles Fried during the Clarence Thomas hearings.

Wally McNamee | Corbis Historical | Getty Images

A reluctant witness, Hill accused Thomas of sexually harassing her when he was her supervisor at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Biden blocked other witnesses who were ready to testify to the all-male committee in support of Hill. Biden said he didn't want to violate Thomas' privacy but went on to vote in the minority against the nomination.

Onthe first day of Biden's 2020 presidential bid, his campaign officials disclosed that during a recent phone call with Hill, the former vice president had expressed "his regret for what she endured"three decades earlier. Hill, a law professor at Brandeis University, told The New York Times she found the conversation unsatisfying, but she eventually endorsed Biden over Trump,"notwithstanding all of his limitations in the past."

"I believed her story from the very beginning," Biden told CNN last July. "I wish I could have protected her more. ...I wish I could have done it differently under the rules.But when it ended, I was determined to do two things. One, make sure never again would there not be women on the committee. ... And I was determined to continue and finish writing and passing the Violence Against Women Act." He did co-sponsor that legislation, which became law in 1994 as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act.

On the Foreign Relations Committee, Biden voted against authorizing the Gulf War in 1991 after Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The same year, Biden was among the first to call for arming Bosnian Muslims and allowing NATO airstrikes against Serb forces in the Balkan War. Eight years later, Biden backed the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and co-sponsored legislation with Republican Sen. John McCain that called on President Bill Clinton to use force against Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic for atrocities in the Kosovo War.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the U.S. military action against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Biden was an early supporter of a continued U.S. military peacekeeping presence in the Central Asian country, where the al-Qaeda plotters of 9/11 had been based. "Whatever it takes, we should do it," Biden said in February 2002. "History will judge us harshly if we allow the hope of a liberated Afghanistan to evaporate because we failed to stay the course."

During the tensions ahead of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Biden helped draft a resolution that gave President George W. Bush the authority to use military force as a last resort against Saddam's purported program to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Biden's 1988 presidential campaign lasted less than three months, flaming out after he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock during a debate at the 1987 Iowa State Fair.

It wasn't the last time Biden put his foot in his mouth. In 2006, two years after announcing his intention to run for president again, Biden rambled seemingly endlesslyduring the confirmation hearing for then-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Jr. The senator managed to ask only five questions in his allotted 30 minutes.

"He has much to say and then too much to add," The Washington Post's Richard Cohen said in a column the next day. "He is an anatomical disaster. His Achilles' heel is his mouth."

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Biden touted his foreign policy credentials, but that bid also fizzled, again because of remarks he made, starting on Day One of his candidacy.

In an interview published that day, Jan. 31, 2007, in The New York Observer, Biden described then-Sen. Obama's historic presidential bid. "I mean you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said.

Obama at first brushed it off, saying he didn't think Biden "intended to offend," but he later took issue with the remarks. "Obviously they were historically inaccurate," Obama said. "African American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate."

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden wave during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Sept. 6, 2012.

Tom Pennington | Getty Images

Nearly a year later, Biden dropped out of the race.Luckily for him, Obama took the high road and named him his running mate in the 2008 campaign, selecting the Irish American senator a member of the "sensible center of the Democratic Party," as it was known for his popularity with blue-collar voters and for his expertise in national security.

Even during Biden's successful bid for the 2020 nomination, his mouth got him in trouble. Three days before the police killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day, Biden apologized within hours of making a racially insensitive statement on "The Breakfast Club," a podcastpopular with Black millennials. "If you've got a problem figuring out whether you're for me or for Trump, then you ain't Black," he said.

The comment shook and angered Black voters. Only 2 months earlier, African American voters in South Carolina had saved the presidential bid for the man who was vice president to the nation's first Black president.

The Obama administration began with the country struggling to pull out of the Great Recession. Biden helped get support for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, then was placed in charge of oversight for the $787 billion package, which included income and unemployment subsidies, tax cuts and funds for "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects. The New York Times in May 2020 called Biden's oversight role "perhaps the most significant ... assignment of his time in office."

In a 2010 report, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office credited the act for raising real gross domestic product by between 1.7% and 4.5%, lowering the unemployment rate by between 0.7 and 1.8 percentage points and increasing the number of full-time jobs by a range of 2 million to 4.8 million. Republicans, however, criticized it. A report by McCain and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., targeted 100 projects that received funds, including $555,000 for new windows for a closed visitor's center at Mount St. Helens and $762,000 for a computerized dance program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

But Biden's across-the-aisle talents were used to win deals with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to avoid falling off the "fiscal cliff" during standoffs in 2011 and 2012 over the federal deficit and debt. Their agreement in 2012 led to the American Taxpayer Relief Act of that year, which made permanent many of the tax cuts enacted under the George W. Bush administration.

While Biden was Obama's vice president, the "Joe bombs" continued. During the swine flu outbreak in 2009, he got in trouble with his boss by saying he would advise his family to avoid travel on public transit or planes, eliciting a clarification from the White House. In May 2012, his statement that he was "absolutely comfortable" with same-sex marriage was a clearer endorsement than Obama's self-described "evolving" position on the issue. Biden apologized to Obama privately, but the president later moved to clearly advocate for same-sex marriage.

Biden made numerous visits to U.S. troops in Iraq and supported NATO's military intervention in Libya during the demise of Moammar Gadhafi's regime and the dictator's assassination. He argued, unsuccessfully, against then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call for sending 21,000 more troops to the war in Afghanistan in 2009.

"The best thing about Joe is that when we get everybody together, he really forces people to think and defend their positions, to look at things from every angle, and that is very valuable for me," Obama said in a statement later that year to Politico. "I also know, when he gives me his advice, he gives it to me straight."

Biden's hopes for the White House were derailed in 2015, this time by another family tragedy. His son Beau, who had served in Iraq and as Delaware attorney general and had been a front-runner in the race for governor, died of brain cancer on May 30, 2015. He was 46. Five months later, Biden announced in the White House Rose Garden that he was taking himself out of the 2016 presidential race.

Then-vice presidential nominee Joe Biden and son Beau acknowledge the crowd at the Democratic National Convention, August 27, 2008 in Denver.

Mark Wilson | Getty Images

"As the family and I have worked through the the grieving process, I've said all along what I've said time and again to others: that it may very well be that that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president. That it might close," Biden said. "I've concluded it has closed."

Before Biden reopened that window more than four years later, Trump considered him such a threat that he pressured the head of a foreign country President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden's appointment to the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

According to an unfounded conspiracy theory, then-Vice President Biden sought to withhold loan guarantees to Ukraine to pressure its government to fire a prosecutor in order to protect Hunter in a corruption investigation of Burisma. However, the call for the removal of the Ukrainian prosecutor was supported by Republicans and Democrats and by major U.S. allies because he was considered soft on corruption.

Trump's call to Zelenskiy became the basis of the impeachment trial that ended in his acquittal by the Republican-led Senate. Biden always stood by Hunter, although he and his son conceded that Hunter could have exercised better judgment in joining the Burisma board.

"Look, my son did nothing wrong at Burisma," Biden said during the first election debate against Trump. "This is not about my family or his family, this is about your family the American people."

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How Joe Biden got to the threshold of the presidency - CNBC