"One thing we know about our president, Joe Biden - he is a fighter, and he is the first to say, when you get knocked down, you get right back up." Kamala Harris, US Vice President
Over a half a century, it was a gruelling climb to the top of the political ladder for Joe Biden.
From senator to vice president and president, he developed a reputation as a savvy political operator and a fighter.
He fought back from grief after devastating tragedies.
At 29, riding high from winning a Senate seat for Delaware, he lost his wife and baby daughter in a car crash. He was sworn-in as Senator in hospital beside his two sons, Hunter and Beau, who were being treated for serious injuries after the crash.
At 72, his son Beau, tipped to take over his father's political legacy, died of brain cancer.
Throughout his time in office, Mr Biden was often praised for using his experience with grief to connect with those mourning. His ability to access deep empathy felt like a superpower to some.
In his 2017 book 'Promise Me, Dad’ where he explores his son’s diagnosis and death he wrote: "The pain had seemed unbearable in the beginning, and it took me a long time to heal, but I did survive the punishing deal. I made it through, with a lot of support and reconstructed my life and my family. When I talk to people in mourning, they know I speak from experience. They know I have a sense of the depth of their pain."
'Amtrak Joe'
He also fought many campaigns.
Known as ‘Amtrak Joe’, for taking the train from Delaware to Washington DC regularly so he could be at home with his kids, his career in the Senate spanned 36 years.
Often crossing the political aisle, he worked on domestic violence and criminal justice issues, and led the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
In 1986, he made headlines for speaking passionately about the need to place sanctions on Apartheid-era South Africa.
"Damnit, we have favourites in South Africa. The favourites in South Africa are the people who are being oppressed by that ugly white regime. Our loyalty is not to South Africa, it’s to South Africans and the South Africans are majority black and they are being excoriated," he declared.
He also sponsored one of the first climate change bills in the Senate in 1986 and went on to propose curbing greenhouse gas emissions in 2007.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he resided over the confirmation of conservative judge Clarence Thomas but was criticised for not doing enough to stop members mocking, jeering and dismissing Anita Hill who had accused Mr Thomas of sexual harassment.
His hands-on style sometimes landed him in trouble. He apologised in 2019 for his past behaviour of uncomfortable close contact with women and vowed to change.
He fought three times to be president.
It was a long journey to the White House with two failed presidential bids in 1988 and 2008.
The first time saw then Senator Biden drop out after a plagiarism scandal. He fought his way back to run again against Barack Obama in 2008, only to become his Vice President for two terms.
He seriously contemplated running again in 2016 but his son’s death and Barack Obama’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton made him hold back until his 2020 fight against Donald Trump.
Seen as an experienced and stable politician in comparison to four years of Donald Trump in office, Joe Biden was elected the new commander-in-chief.
Major challenges
At 78, he became the oldest President ever to enter the White House with the first woman Vice President, Kamala Harris by his side.
But his time in office saw major challenges.
There was a messy withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 and record numbers at the border with Mexico.
Opponents, desperate to bring him down, launched impeachment inquiries into President Biden in September 2023.
A new war in Europe tested western alliances and hit American’s pockets hard. His ambitious attempts to bring down inflation didn’t resonate with voters.
President Biden’s popularity dipped further following his response to the war in Gaza.
Team Biden would point to his efforts to create jobs and lower costs for families. New legislation aimed to invest and upgrade the nation’s infrastructure and make more technologies in America was introduced.
He also attempted to tackle student debt, lower the cost of prescription drugs and he pardoned all prior federal offenses for simple marijuana possession.
As commander-in-chief he oversaw the killing of al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in August 2022.
A triumphant visit to Ireland in April 2023 was supposed to show that Joe Biden was ready for second term in the White House and that he had the energy to do so.
A jam-packed schedule from the east coast to the west of Ireland over three days was in stark contrast to his 2020 presidential campaign when most of his interviews were done from his basement in Delaware.
However, cracks began to appear in Biden world less than a year later.
The president once labelled himself a ‘gaffe machine’. Making mistakes was nothing new for him or his team. At a St Patrick’s Day reception in 2010 for Brian Cowen, Joe Biden got confused over which of the Taoiseach’s parents had passed away.
"His mom lived in Long Island for 10 years or so, God rest her soul… Although she’s, wait… Your mom’s still alive? It was your dad that passed. God bless her soul. I gotta get this straight," Mr Biden said.
He also mistook the All Blacks for the Black and Tans.
But falls and appearing to regularly freeze at events sparked concern not only about his candidacy for a second term but his ability to stay in office.
The infamous CNN debate with Donald Trump was the beginning of the end, when 51.3 million people watched President Biden stumble and struggle on live television for an agonising 90 minutes.
A defiant, and stubborn, Joe Biden desperately tried to cling on to the nomination as more high-profile Democrats and party donors called on him to pull out of the presidential race.
It soon became clear to everyone, bar him and his inner circle, that this was a fight he would not win.
"I’m not in this for my legacy," was one of Joe Biden’s final lines as he tried to secure a second term in office.
While his political exit may not be through choice, his legacy has been decades in the making.
A savvy politician and a proud Irish American who spent years working through tides of grief and dedicated his life to representing the United States at the highest levels.
A ‘stubborn Irish’ side may have helped him get elected to one of the most powerful positions in the world.
At the same time, it may be the part of him that cast a shadow over that legacy.
