Joe Biden by Beatrice Gormley (free ebook reader for iphone TXT) 📕

businesses and workers, as well as the cities and states, would need ongoing support from the government. To pay for such assistance, Joe Biden proposed to cancel the tax breaks Trump had given the wealthy and to raise taxes on anyone earning more than $400,000 per year. The Biden administration would need the cooperation of Congress to pass such legislation.

Joe Biden’s age was another concern, and he had said that he viewed himself as a “bridge” to a younger generation of Democratic leaders. Although Biden was fit, healthy, and unusually energetic, he was the oldest person ever to be elected US president. Even Ronald Reagan was only seventy-seven as he left office in 1989. Would Biden’s health and energy hold up under the enormous strain of the presidency? In case it did not, he was confident that his vice president, Kamala Harris, was “ready to lead.”

Global climate change was an issue that the Trump administration had simply denied and ignored for four years. But as if to force Americans to pay attention to this mounting threat, the West Coast had burst into flames during the last months of the 2020 presidential campaign. In California, Oregon, and Washington, forest fires swept over millions of acres, driving many thousands of people from their homes and choking the air across the entire region.

At the same time, the southeastern US was battered by hurricanes and floods, and the western half of the country suffered drought. Climate scientists agreed that the devastating fires, the rise in sea levels, and the unusually violent storms were all caused by higher global temperatures. And the rise in global temperatures was caused by increased greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.

The United States bore a large part of the responsibility for global climate change, being the second-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Joe Biden planned to launch a trillion-dollar program to replace fossil fuels in the US with clean energy. Importantly, this huge effort would also stimulate the economy, by creating millions of new jobs. Just as important, the US needed to set an example for the rest of the world.

Still another pressing problem: the United States’ relations with other countries were in disarray. For many years before 2016, the US had been the country that other nations looked to for leadership. By 2020, the Trump administration had strained relationships with most of the US’s traditional allies. And the US had lost the respect of many nations, especially because of Trump’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, Joe Biden had deep expertise, from his years as senator and then as vice president, in working with other countries, and he was determined to restore the US’s position in the world.

During Joe Biden’s long career in public service, he had faced and overcome many challenges. But it seemed that his greatest challenges lay ahead.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Karen Nagel and all the editorial and production staff at Aladdin, who polished this book and made it shine. And special thanks to my husband, Robert J. Gormley, who picked Biden for a winner early on.

More from the Author

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About the Author

BEATRICE GORMLEY has written a number of books for young readers, including several titles in the Childhood of Famous Americans and Childhood of World Figures series, as well as biographies of John McCain, Barack Obama, Pope Francis, George W. Bush, Laura Bush, and Nelson Mandela. She lives in Westport, Massachusetts.

ALADDIN

Simon & Schuster, New York

Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids

www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Beatrice-Gormley

Sources

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Witcover, Jules. Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption. New York: HarperCollins, 2010.

Woodward, Bob. Rage. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020.

MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS

Associated Press. “In Florida, Trump Goes Back on Campaign Trail.” Boston Globe, October 13, 2020.

Ballhaus, Rebecca, Sadie Gurman, and Dustin Volz. “Rough Transcript Shows Trump Pressed Ukraine to ‘look into’ Joe Biden’s Son.” The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2019.

Bidgood, Jess. “Vote Count Drama Ends with Home State Victory.” Boston Globe, Nov. 8, 2020.

Blake, Aaron. “4 Takeaways from the Final Night of the Democratic National Convention.” The Washington Post, August 20, 2020.

Bouie, Jamelle. “Trump’s Perverse Campaign Strategy.” New York Times, September 16, 2020.

Bowden, Mark. “The Salesman.” The Atlantic, October 2010.

Cohn, Nate. “Large Polling Leads Tend to Erode. Is 2020 Different?” New York Times, July 21, 2020.

Dreier, Peter. “Don’t Add Reagan’s Face to Mount Rushmore.” Free Lance-Star, April 3, 2011.

Ember, Sydney, and Jonathan Martin. “Joe Biden, in Video, Says He Will Be ‘More Mindful’ of Personal Space.” New York Times, April 3, 2019.

Entous, Adam. “Will Hunter Biden Jeopardize His Father’s Campaign?” New Yorker, July 8 and 15, 2019.

Estepa, Jessica. “Joe Biden on Hillary Clinton: ‘I Never Thought She Was a Great Candidate.’ ” USA Today, May 19, 2017.

Flegenheimer, Matt, and Alexander Burns. “Kamala Harris Makes the Case That Joe Biden Should Pass the Torch to Her.” New York Times, June 27, 2019.

Glueck, Katie. “Biden Confronts Trump on Chaos and Leadership.” New York Times, September 1, 2020.

Glueck, Katie, Thomas Kaplan, and Reid J. Epstein. “ ‘Gasoline on the Fire’: Biden Says That Trump Is Rooting for Violence.” New York Times, August 28, 2020.

Goldmacher, Shane, and Jonathan Martin. “President Spurns Norms to Elevate Candidacy, But Virus’s Reality Stays.” New York