Joe Biden

=== Death of wife and daughter ===
A few weeks after Biden was elected senator, his wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi were killed in an automobile accident while Christmas shopping in [[Hockessin, Delaware]], on December 18, 1972.<ref name="ap-timeline" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=December 19, 1972 |title=Biden's Wife, Child Killed in Car Crash |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/19/archives/bidens-wife-child-killed-in-car-crash.html |page=9 |access-date=January 8, 2021 |agency=UPI |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=December 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202063824/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/19/archives/bidens-wife-child-killed-in-car-crash.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Neilia's station wagon was hit by a semi-trailer truck as she pulled out from an intersection. Their sons Beau (aged{{nbsp}}3) and Hunter (aged{{nbsp}}2) were in the car, and were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Beau with a broken leg and other wounds and Hunter with a minor skull fracture and other head injuries.{{sfn|Witcover|2010|pp=93, 98}} Biden considered resigning to care for them,<ref name="aap08-bio" /> but [[Senate Majority Leader|Senate majority leader]] [[Mike Mansfield]] persuaded him not to.<ref name="lat-joe">{{cite news|last=Levey |first=Noam M. |date=August 24, 2008 |title=In his home state, Biden is a regular Joe |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-aug-24-na-biden24-story.html |access-date=September 7, 2008 |archive-date=December 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230125100/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-aug-24-na-biden24-story.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The accident filled Biden with anger and religious doubt. He wrote that he "felt God had played a horrible trick" on him,<ref>Biden, ''Promises to Keep'', p. 81</ref> and he had trouble focusing on work.<ref name="nyt-ease">{{Cite news |last=Bumiller |first=Elisabeth |author-link=Elisabeth Bumiller |date=December 14, 2007 |title=Biden Campaigning With Ease After Hardships |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/us/politics/14biden.html |access-date=September 13, 2008 |archive-date=December 10, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210154755/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/us/politics/14biden.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="npr-int">{{Cite news |date=August 1, 2007 |title=On Becoming Joe Biden |work=[[Morning Edition]] |publisher=[[NPR]] |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12389154 |access-date=September 12, 2008 |archive-date=September 9, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080909093445/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12389154 |url-status=live }}</ref>