Getty Ashley Biden
President-elect Joe Biden’s daughter is a fairly private figure, but she plans to advocate for the cause of “social justice.”
That’s what she told former President George W. Bush’s daughter, Jenna Hager, in an interview with The Today Show. On January 20, 2021, Ashley becomes the new First Daughter when her father is sworn in as the nation’s 46th president.
Ashley Biden told Hager that she plans “to advocate for social justice, for mental health, to be involved in community development and revitalization.” According to CNN, the new First Daughter is so private that she doesn’t even have social media accounts and, unlike Ivanka Trump, she doesn’t plan to hold a position in the new administration.
Ashley Biden is the only daughter of former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden. The Bidens also raised Joe’s sons from his first marriage, Beau and Hunter. Joe Biden did have another daughter, who died very young.
Tragically, Beau died at age 46 of a brain tumor. Biden’s first daughter, Naomi, died young with his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, in a tragic car crash. Ashley is Joe’s surviving child, along with Hunter, who was the son of Joe and Neilia.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Ashley Biden Says She Avoids Social Media Because of the ‘Cruelty’
To Hager, Biden explained why she doesn’t have social media accounts, saying, “The cruelty and the meanness, that’s why I’m not, I don’t have a social media account that’s public. Part of it is also having boundaries for myself, because I believe in kindness. I believe in the humanity of all of us.”
The List once described Ashley Biden as “a social worker, activist, and entrepreneur with a passion for creating permanent change,” especially issues relating to poverty.
The Washington Examiner reported that Biden was working for a Delaware nonprofit organization, the Delaware center for Justice, that received a $166,000 federal grant supported by Joe Biden.
Then 38, Ashley Biden had worked for the group for a year and was promoted to executive director, according to Examiner, which added that the grant is designed to “strengthen local law enforcement.”
In 2019, Biden announced she was leaving the group through a statement on Facebook.
“Working with DCJ has been one of the great honors of my life,” she said. “Together we have changed the landscape of justice reform, violence intervention, and victim services for the State of Delaware. I leave DCJ in capable hands, with a passionate and committed staff, a talented board and the infrastructure to continue to support DCJ’s vision. I am confident that the organization will continue to thrive and provide essential services to our community.” She didn’t explain why she was quitting, but it came as her dad was said to be considering a presidential run.
2. Ashley Biden Says it Was Difficult Being the Daughter of a Prominent Politician
Being the daughter of a prominent politician who has served for so long has come with challenges for Biden.
“Any achievement that I accomplished, many people attributed to the fact that I was his daughter,” she once said, according to The List.
She praised both her mother and father, saying, “I was taught by both of my parents to work hard, to be passionate about whatever I did, and I felt that I did that and kind of got to where I am today because of hard work and passion and determination.”
Biden told Glamour magazine that public service was in her DNA, saying, “The passion started at a very young age. My dad is a lifelong public servant; my mom was a public-school teacher—it’s in my DNA.”
3. Biden Worked on Animal Welfare Issues From an Early Age & Has Spoken About the Heartbreaking Loss of Her Brother, Beau
Vice-President Joe Biden walks with daughter Ashley, right, as wife Jill waves to the crowd in the Inaugural Parade January 20, 2009, in Washington, D.C.
To Hager, Biden discussed the tragic loss of her brother, Beau. She said he “will be there with us,” adding, “He was 46 when he passed. Dad will be the 46th president.”
She also revealed that Joe Biden has a rule relating to his children: “We have a rule, still today, that no matter where Dad is, no matter what meeting he’s in, if one of the kids’ call, you have to get him out.”
Biden has worked for years on animal welfare issues.
“When I was a kid, I always really loved animals, and I found out that Bonne Bell lip gloss was testing on animals, so I organized my school to start writing letters to [the company],” she told the magazine. “Then I became obsessed with the plight of dolphins getting stuck in tuna nets. My dad connected me with Congressman Barbara Boxer, who I nicknamed the ‘dolphin lady,’ and she got me onto the floor to help lobby Republican congressman for The Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act.”
Biden told Elle that she was motivated by her parents’ jobs. “I got a real sense that some people had a lot, and some had nothing at all,” Biden told Elle. “Even as a child, I had a hard time reconciling the inherent unfairness of it all.”
On LinkedIn, Biden lists experience as an education and employment liaison with the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families from 2007 to 2012; employment and education specialist at West End Neighborhood House in Wilmington, Delaware, from 2006 to 2007; and a clinical support specialist at NHS Children’s Reach Clinic in Philadelphia from 2003 to 2006.
4. Biden Described Her Mother as ‘Fierce’
Livelihood founder Ashley Biden speaks onstage at the GILT and Ashley Biden celebration of the launch of exclusive Livelihood Collection at Spring Place on February 7, 2017, in New York City.
Biden had glowing words for her mother, new First Lady Jill Biden, in the interview with Hager. “Fierce” and “extremely loyal” were the words she used to describe her mom. She also said Dr. Jill Biden reminds her husband to put his cereal bowl away.
According to Elle magazine, Biden started Livelihood, an “ethically produced, American-made clothing company.” The fashion line contained “supersoft organic cotton hoodies.”
Her debut collection proceeds were going to “alleviate poverty through education, training, and job placement,” Elle reported.
Elle reported that Biden graduated from Tulane University and earned a master’s in social work from the University of Pennsylvania. She also helped foster care children.
She is married to a plastic surgeon. Her 2012 wedding announcement in The New York Times said, “Ashley Blazer Biden, the daughter of Jill Jacobs Biden and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., was married Saturday evening to Dr. Howard David Krein, a son of Bunny Lipner Krein and Stanley Krein of Cherry Hill, N.J.”
From left to right, Dr. Jill Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden, Livelihood founder Ashley Biden, and Gilt & Saks OFF 5TH President Jonathan Greller in 2017.
At that time, The Times reported, “The bride, 30, is a social worker and career development and education liaison in the education office for the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families. She develops programs for children in the juvenile-justice, foster-care and mental-health systems.”
The groom, according to The Times, was 45 and “an otolaryngologist and plastic surgeon at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals in Philadelphia. He is also an assistant professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery and a director of the Herbert Kean Center for Facial Aesthetics there. He graduated from Rutgers University and received a medical degree from Thomas Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He also received a Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.”
5. Ashley Has Ended up in News Headlines Due to Drugs
Second lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden, left, and Ashley Biden attend the 88th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 28, 2016, in Hollywood, California.
According to Washington Examiner, when she was 17, Biden was arrested for marijuana possession but charges weren’t pursued.
A decade later, a purported friend of hers tried to sell the New York Post a hidden camera video that they said showed a woman resembling Biden using cocaine, Examiner reported.
At Tulane University, she was known as a “party girl,” according to The New York Post.
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