Joe Biden served as Barack Obama’s vice president for two terms and was later elected as president. Because of this, we know plenty about Biden as a politician. However, his fame and his lifetime of political service means that people have dug up some very strange facts about Biden as a man.
What struck us about some of these facts is just how weird they are. Like, regardless of your politics, Biden has done some things over the years that everybody can agree are pretty darn strange. Don’t believe us? Keep reading to discover the weirdest things about Joe Biden!
Joe Biden was one of the poorest congress politicians for decades
These days, Joe Biden seems to be doing quite well financially. He doesn’t flaunt his wealth like his political rival Donald Trump, of course. But after serving as vice president and then getting elected as president, Biden has achieved the kind of wealth and status that most of us can only dream of.
However, for decades, Biden was the very opposite of a wealthy politician. When he was elected as senator in 1973, he was paid $42,500 a year, which is a decent pay rate once you adjust for inflation. However, he had no investments like many of his peers did, and this led to his frequent claim that he was “the poorest man in Congress.”
That may sound like a line, but some numbers actually back this up. According to Politifact, Biden’s net worth was -$47,494 in 2005, putting him in serious debt. At the time, he financially ranked 570 out of 585 when it came to politicians’ wealth. Fortunately for Biden, things turned around after he became Vice President: not only did his pay jump to $200,000 a year, but he started earning $11 million per year after first leaving office thanks to money from various speaking engagements, book royalties, and other lucrative opportunities.
RELATED: How Early Family Tragedy Defined Joe Biden’s Life And Career
He became a senator at an earlier age than the law allows
If it feels like Joe Biden has been a politician forever, that’s likely because he was elected senator at the tender age of 29. Of course, if you know political requirements like we do, that simple fact may raise your eyebrows. You see, the Constitution specifies that someone needs to be 30 to serve as a senator.
How did Joe Biden get elected before the Constitution would normally allow it? He didn’t have to pull any strings or otherwise call in any favors. You see, he was elected only 13 days before he turned 30. That meant that he would be 30 before he was officially sworn in as a senator, making his election and subsequent service completely legal.
Strange history of pranks
When you think of the president of the United States, “prankster” is probably the last thing you imagine. However, it turns out that Joe Biden has a long history of both being pranked and pulling pranks on others. And it doesn’t look like he’s going to stop anytime soon!
When Biden was in high school, he worked as a lifeguard, and his close friends would prank him by throwing out “yo mama” jokes, all in the hopes of provoking a reaction and maybe getting free access to the pool. By the time Biden was in college, he had become a prankster, and he once used a fire extinguisher on a dorm director, resulting in him being put on probation!
Fortunately for Biden, he married someone with a similar sense of humor. Jill Biden is well known for pulling her own pranks and keeping her famous husband on his toes!
RELATED: 8 Times Joe Biden Was Caught Being Really Weird
He was once famously pro-life
In the upcoming presidential election, Joe Biden will once again be squaring off against Donald Trump. This time around, Biden may be able to more easily secure support by promising reproductive freedom to women. After Republicans successfully overturned Roe v. Wade, many Democrats made political gains by promising to restore access to abortion to women throughout the country.
Interestingly enough, Joe Biden himself was once famously pro-life. Way back in 1974, he told the Washingtonian “I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body.” He even went so far as to slam the then-recent Roe v. Wade ruling, saying that “I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far.”
According to The Washington Post, Biden even voted alongside Republicans in 1982 in favor of allowing states to choose whether or not they would fund abortions, calling it “the single most difficult vote I’ve cast as a U.S. senator.” As recently as 2006, he supported limiting abortions, and only in the next year did he clarify that while he personally believes life begins at conception, he doesn’t want to legally impose his will on others who don’t share that belief.