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30 facts about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Here are some fun facts about the new first and second families in Washington, D.C.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have officially been sworn into office.

Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden are the newest occupants at the White House, while Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff moved into the Naval Observatory, the official residence of the vice president. 

Below are 30 facts about the new first and second families in Washington. 

Joe Biden and the new first family

1. At 78, Joe Biden is the oldest person to become president of the United States. President Donald Trump previously held this title, as he was 70 when he took office.

2. Joe Biden had four children – Hunter, Beau, Naomi and Ashley. Naomi died at the age of one in a car crash that also took the life of Biden’s wife, Neilia, in 1972. Beau died in 2015 after battling brain cancer. Biden also has seven grandchildren.

Credit: AP
President-elect Joe Biden stands with Jill Biden and his family after speaking in Wilmington, Del., Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

3. Joe Biden is the oldest of four siblings including his sister Valerie and brothers Frank and Jim.

4. Joe Biden is a huge fan of Amtrak and estimates he’s ridden more than 2 million miles aboard 16,000 Amtrak trains. Biden would commute to Washington from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, as a U.S. senator. Biden originally planned to travel to Washington for his Inauguration on an Amtrak train, but those plans were scrapped due to security concerns. 

Credit: AP
Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. mingles with passengers on the Amtrak Acela train from Washington to Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

5. Joe Biden owns a 1967 Corvette Stingray, a wedding gift from his late father who ran a Chevrolet dealership.

6. Joe Biden defeated an incumbent in 1972 to become the fifth-youngest person ever elected to the U.S. Senate.

7. Before the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden ran for president two other times, in 1988 and 2008.

8. In his junior and senior years of high school, Joe Biden was elected class president. He was unable to run for student body president because he had too many demerits.

9. In high school, Joe Biden played football as a wide receiver and running back.

10. Growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and later in Wilmington, Joe Biden was bullied because of his stutter.

11. After law school, Joe Biden was drafted for the Vietnam War, but failed the medical assessment due to asthma.

12. Joe Biden met his late wife, Neilia Hunter, on a spring break trip to the Bahamas during his junior year of college. He met his second wife, Jill Tracy Jacobs, on a blind date arranged by his brother.

Credit: AP
FILE - In this summer 1972 file photo, Joe Biden, carries both of his sons, Joseph, left, and Robert during an appearance at the Democratic state convention At center is his wife Neilia Biden, who was killed in an auto crash, Dec. 20, 1972. With them are Gov.-elect Sherman W. Tribbitt and his wife, Jeanne. (AP Photo)

13. Joe Biden regularly attends mass and will become the second Catholic president after John F. Kennedy.

14. Joe Biden does not drink alcohol.

15. Joe Biden loves frozen desserts, especially chocolate chip ice cream.

16. Joe Biden was an adjunct law professor teaching constitutional law at the Widener University Delaware Law School from 1991 to 2008.

17. Joe and Jill Biden will be joined in the White House by their two German shepherds, named Champ and Major, and are planning to get a cat. Biden fractured his foot in late November while playing with Major, who will be the first rescue dog in the White House.

RELATED: Pets poised for a return to the White House

Credit: AP
FILE - This Nov. 16, 2018, photo, provided by the Delaware Humane Association shows Joe Biden and his newly-adopted German shepherd Major, in Wilmington, Del.

18. Dr. Jill Biden plans to continue teaching as first lady, making her the first presidential spouse to continue a full-time professional career.

RELATED: Report: Jill Biden to push for debt-free community college

19. The Bidens own a home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a property they bought to spend time with family after Joe Biden served as vice president.

20. Before leaving the White House in 2017, President Barack Obama surprised Joe Biden as the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. 

Facts about Kamala Harris and the second family

1. Harris’ mother gave her the name “Kamala” as a nod to her Indian roots. The name means “lotus” and is another name for Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, fortune, love, beauty, joy and prosperity.

2. After spending her early years growing up in the Bay Area in California, Kamala Harris lived in Montreal, Canada, throughout middle and high school while her mother taught at McGill University.

3. Kamala Harris married her husband Doug Emhoff, an entertainment lawyer, at the age of 49 in 2014.

Credit: AP
Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and her husband Doug Emhoff take the stage during a drive-in get out the vote rally, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

4. Doug Emhoff is the first Jewish spouse of either a president or vice president.

5. Harris is the stepmother to her husband, Doug Emhoff's two children. Cole and Ella both refer to her as “Momala.”

6. Kamala Harris loves to cook, with roast chicken being her go-to dinner.

7. Kamala Harris collects Converse Chuck Taylor shoes.

8. Kamala Harris was good friends with Beau Biden, Joe Biden’s late son, when they both served as attorneys general of their respective states -- Harris in California and Biden in Delaware.

9. Kamala Harris is the first woman, the first Black person and the first Asian American vice president of the United States.

10. With a degree in political science and economics from Howard University, Kamala Harris will be the first vice president to have graduated from a historically Black university. No president has graduated from an HBCU.

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