For the record, I don’t regard the video above, by itself, as convincing evidence that President Biden abuses dogs. It sure is suspicious, but confirmation bias is strong here: I firmly believe Biden is a bad guy who has masqueraded as otherwise his entire career, and since abusing animals is signature significance for unethical, untrustworthy people, Biden mistreating his own dogs seems consistent. That video does show me someone who doesn’t know how to interact with dogs in a kind and supportive way. I have used my foot on a dog in an adversarial manner exactly once on my life: when a stray dog broke into my yard and had my girlfriend’s cat in its mouth. In that video above, it is unclear whether Biden is actually kicking Commander, but he definitely is using his foot to keep the dog in line. It’s a bad sign.
The Bidens’ first German Shepherd, Major, was exiled to a family friend in Delaware in 2021 after biting several people at the White House. Commander was an innocent puppy when he was brought into the President’s home as a replacement, and now he has bitten more people than Major did. The most recent known incident was on September 25, when the dog bit a Secret Service officer seriously enough to require medical attention. Naturally, because this is how this White House deals with its embarrassments and mistakes, the President, his aides and the mainstream news media are spinning, denying, and minimizing the incidents. (Here’s the Times this week discussing the issue without impugning the Bidens at all.) With Major, the Bidens implied that a bitten Secret Service agent was lying about a bite that required him to seek medical treatment. This time, the White House claims that the President’s security detail has triggered the attacks with “unfriendly expressions”—you know, microaggressions. Right.
In one attack by Commander, an agent used a chair to defend himself from the dog . The latest victim was Dale Haney, 71, who is not part of Biden’s security team; so far, there’s no evidence that he was making faces at the dog. Judicial Watch, in a press release yesterday, claims to have evidence that Biden “has punched and kicked his dogs.”
What’s going on here? I think it’s mostly pretty clear.
First, the White House is a terrible place for any dog. Lots of strangers are coming in and out, and a dog’s “masters” are usually busy or missing. A herding breed like a German Shepherd is a particularly bad choice as a First Dog. Working dogs are generally strong-willed and need a job as well as lots of play, attention, training, socialization and exercise. If they don’t get it, they become nervous and stressed as well as fearful. Obviously, the Biden dogs weren’t getting it.
Donald Trump was sneered at by various pundits for being the first President within memory who didn’t have a dog or cat in the White House. You know—more proof that he’s evil. Trump said that he didn’t have time to take proper care of a dog, and that was a responsible answer. Presidents have often used dogs as props, especially after FDR’s Scottie, Fala, became popular and was referenced in Roosevelt’s less weighty speeches. (Fala bit a couple of people too.) When a POTUS has young children living at the White House, a family dog may get sufficient love and attention to be well-adjusted. (In the film of “The Pelican Brief” the corrupt and dim-witted President played by Robert Culp is better at teaching tricks to his dog than governing. You might think Biden would be an ideal real-life version of that President, but it appears not.)
Dog lovers whose brains and values have not been complete overcome by fealty to the Biden Presidency Ethics Train Wreck are beginning to be alarmed. Prof Turley wrote this week that the Bidens are breaking the law:
[T]he Bidens…are subject to strict liability. However, it is difficult for Secret Service agents to sue a protected family and the Bidens know it. They are the ultimate captive audience. That is not the case for civilians in the White House compound.They are not required to assume the role of chew toys for presidential pets. The Bidens are well beyond their one free bite. They are now clearly in possession of a vicious animal under the common law and can be held strictly liable as a result.
In other words, we are in familiar cover-up territory. Conservative pundit Stephen Green is more emotional, and wrote after noting the Judicial Watch allegation;
I must pause and collect myself before writing any further.I’m a dog person. My wife is so much of a dog person that the first big test of our budding relationship was when she looked me square in the eye and asked if I was a dog person….So it’s with outrage and trembling hands that I’m writing this report. Biden has now had two different German Shepherds, Commander and Major, who have repeatedly bitten Secret Service agents and other White House staff. That much is an established fact. There’s a pattern here, and that almost always reflects on the owner, not on the dogs.
I know this is true. Our rescue dog, Spuds, was neglected and abused before we adopted him. He is the sweetest dog we have ever had, but he is still suspicious of strangers when he is on a leash. (If I let him off the leash, he takes it as a sign that the individual is a friend to be trusted, and immediately sits on his or her foot and offers his magnificent head for an ear rub…) Spuds did bite a neighbor, and it was completely my fault: I had given him too much leash and let him go around a corner without my knowing that the area was clear. A man was on his hands and knees, working on some plants, and Spuds was startled—I don’t think he had ever seen a human in that position before. My fault, 100%. I also believe Spuds was kicked by his previous owner. I have often rubbed the backs of our other dogs (and cat) with my foot: Spuds growled and leaped up when I tried that with him initially, obviously regarding my foot as a threat. Now he trusts me, and enjoys the occasional foot-pat.
Green continues:
I’m inclined to believe that a guy who humiliates his constituents in public, as Biden has done his entire career, is likely to abuse his dogs in private. That he’s had at least two dogs with behavior problems is yet more evidence of possible abuse.Or, and this is the most generous interpretation, maybe Biden merely neglects his dogs….If there’s yet no direct evidence of abuse, there’s also zero direct evidence that Biden cares for his German Shepherds with the love and playtime they require. Abused or neglected, dogs treated either way will act out. Biden’s surviving adult children both show evidence of emotional abuse or neglect, and one of them even wrote about it extensively in her now-public diary…At this moment, all I can care about is the shallowness and callowness of a two-bit schemer who has abused or neglected his public trophy dogs to the point where two sweet animals are dangerous to those around them.
That’s a bit too far for me, but not too too far. It’s clear the Democrat Woke will tolerate constant lies, totalitarian tactics, the use of the justice system against political enemies, the presence of a mentally declining mediocrity in one of the most difficult jobs in the world and more, and also that the mainstream media lacks the integrity, courage and dedication to its role in a democracy to be critics and whistleblowers rather than accessories. I wonder, however, if the “dog people” among them will support a President whom they conclude is cruel to his dogs.
Ethics Alarms 
A woke president prefers GERMAN shepherds? Of all the dogs they could choose? German Shepherds? I’m a dog person down to my toes but I have to admit I’ve never felt comfortable around German shepherds. Maybe because the only dog I’ve ever had a problem with was one and our son climbed over our neighbor’s wall to retrieve a ball and was bitten by the neighbor’s, wait for it, German shepherd. They are trained as attack dogs by the police and military. They were used to make the Berlin Wall unsafe. They are used as junkyard dogs. I know lots of people love them but come on people running Joe Biden. German Shepherds?
And what’s with the names? Military names? Is the next one going to be called “Master” so they can have both Master and Commander in the books? Commander? Isn’t that racist and white supremacist and sexist and homophobic? Is that an equitable name? Why not just name the next one STASI or maybe SS? Morons.
Cat person here, but I still care about dogs. As much as I would like to blame Biden, is it possible that there are other humans in the White House that are causing these dogs to become biters?
The White House is not a good place to have a pet, but perhaps the people around the dog, rather than Commander’s too busy owners, are causing the issue? That still doesn’t mean that his owners are doing right by him, but instead of immediately blaming Joe, perhaps there is more here than him abusing his dog.
In my childhood, my family got a cocker spaniel puppy. She was super cute, but also the runt of the litter, so quite small. One week, not long after we got this sweet little thing, my family went camping with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. My cousins were used to their large dogs who could be manhandled and were much more kid friendly than a tiny cocker pup. That week, they abused that poor dog enough that she hated children from them on. My parents didn’t recognize the issue until it was too late, as they assumed that my cousins knew how to be around animals, since my aunt and uncle had, at any given point, somewhere between 2 and 4 dogs and another 3-5 cats. After that week, she would bite any kid who got too close to her, including me, especially when we traveled home in the same pickup. Over the years, she and I eventually learned to live with one another. We weren’t perfect dog owners, but we did not harm our animal. The next time my parents got a puppy, my cousins were prohibited from interacting with him until he was much older and able to handle their attention. They were older too, but hadn’t gotten any more gentle. Even as my parent’s Lab-horse mix grew into the giant he became, because of that cocker, my parents never left him alone in a room with my (now adult) cousins. If that is what is happening to Joe’s “beloved” dogs, he needs to step up (or fall down, you know, whichever). No more dogs in the White House for this President would seem to be a fair demand, no matter who is at fault. If Joe is not at fault, then he (or his handlers) needs to find out who is.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
There’s a pattern here. How hard is it for Secret Service people and other White House employees to be kind to the President’s family pet? How hard is it for supervisors to make that clear to their direct reports? And besides, the buck stops you know where. I doubt Joe even knows he has a dog. It’s a dysfunctional family and administration. They’re abusing Joe. The chronic dog bite situation is simply a symptom of a very dire situation: the country is being run by a cabal of advisors who are wheeling a purported president around.
My favorite conspiracy theory about Biden’s dogs is that they are biting to protect Joe when the Secret Service or someone else is trying to administer one of the alleged drug cocktails they use to keep him lucid. I like it because it makes the dog the good guy.
In the video, it looks he’s pushing the dog with his leg in the direction of the car. It didn’t look like contact was that hard, and the contact point was Biden’s lower leg, not his actual foot. It still looked dumb, but it’s not like he impacted the dog hard with his toe.
Was the video cut off to not show Joe falling down? Why is a guy that doddering on his feet handling a young, leashed German Shepherd?
Yeah… It’s not a kick, it’s more like he’s tripping over the dog who’s desperately looking for someone to lead it instead of the lost fool it got tied to.
Kinda like the rest of the U.S.
Give that man an ice cream cone and the dog will be much more easily handled as it’ll be watching for drips. Kinda like student loan forgiveness.
Unless the dog goes for the ice cream cone and bites his hand off at the same time… But then at least we will have confirmed that the republican deep state has gone to the dogs.
I’ve had dogs in my life almost literally since birth. From Butch (the English Bulldog who used to nose me head-over-heels in the back yard) to my current dog, Layla (an American Bulldog that my wife procured without my knowledge or consent), I know as much about dogs as anyone not dedicated to training, raising, or treating them.
Dogs almost always reflect, in some ways, the personality of their owners. In my opinion, dogs act in ways consistent their training’s effectiveness (or lack thereof) and experience. Age is also a major factor, and many large breeds like German Shepherd Dogs (or American Bulldogs, for that matter) mature later than smaller breeds, usually after two to three years.
Jack, you are spot on that a GSD is ill-suited for the White House. That breed has changed over the centuries, and is no longer a true “herding” breed like a Border Collie or Australian Shepherd Dog. I owned a GSD as a young man, and they are far more of a “fencing” dog in the protection sense than a true herder. They require a lot of exercise and attention, or they become very territorial and tough to control.
I cannot say for sure that the Bidens are bad owners. What I can say is that the training that their dog has received is ineffective or insufficient. That has permitted the dog to become protective and possibly aggressive. They need to take immediate, firm action to correct this dog’s training or remove him from public life.
After getting married, our first dog was a Shepherd. He never bit anyone, let the cat sleep on him, and was great with the kids when they came along. He could be walked without unleashed, with only voice commands.
Dogs need an alpha or they’re confused about their status and unsure of how to behave.. SloJo is probably just that “smelly, creepy old human that sometimes comes around and yells at people” to Commander. He’d probably be better off assigned to a Secret Service agent who likes dogs and could earn his love and trust, and let him know what behavior was acceptable.