Joe and Jill Biden made more than $15 million in two years after leaving the White House, tax returns show – CNBC

The two dozen candidates trying to challenge President Donald Trump next year have broadly preached a pro-worker message and lashed out at corporations during their campaigns. Other major candidates — from Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. — have reported recent spikes in income as they run for president.

In a statement Tuesday, Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates disputed that Biden’s newfound wealth would affect his goals. He said the former vice president “grew up in a blue collar family that was forced to move away from home in order to make ends meet.”

“Fighting for working families has been the defining cause of Joe Biden’s life and the first event of his campaign was hosted at a Pennsylvania union hall where he blasted Donald Trump’s tax breaks for the rich and big corporations,” Bates said. “He’s running to restore the American middle class, with everybody — regardless of race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation — in on the deal this time.”

The couple primarily made its money from book deals. Joe and Jill Biden reported about $10 million in 2017 income from CelticCapri and Giacoppa, S-corporations paid for their book deals and speaking engagements. The 2017 Republican tax cuts — backed by Trump and slammed across the 2020 Democratic field — gave a new 20% tax break to owners of S corporations and other entities.

The Bidens made about $3.2 million from the same businesses in 2018.

Joe Biden’s book, “Promise Me, Dad,” came out in November 2017, more than two years after his son Beau died. Jill Biden’s book, “Where the Light Enters,” was released in May.

The former vice president got paid five or six figures for more than 40 speaking engagements during 2017 and 2018, according to a separate financial disclosure form filed by his campaign. He took in as much as $190,000 for a lecture at Drew University in New Jersey in March 2018.

During both 2017 and 2018, Joe Biden was the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Jill Biden taught at Northern Virginia Community College. They reported about $461,000 and $500,000 in income from teaching in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

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