Politics
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ‘s canine Commander bit or in any other case attacked Secret Service personnel not less than 10 instances between October 2022 and January, together with one incident that required a hospital go to by the injured legislation enforcement officer, in keeping with data from the Division of Homeland Safety.
The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch on Tuesday launched practically 200 pages of Secret Service data that it obtained by way of a Freedom of Data Act lawsuit. The group mentioned it filed swimsuit after the company, a division of DHS, “failed to reply adequately” to its request final December for data about biting incidents involving the purebred German shepherd. The group mentioned it filed the request after receiving a tip about Commander’s habits.
Commander is the second canine of Biden’s to behave aggressively, together with biting Secret Service personnel and White Home workers. They finally despatched the canine, a German shepherd named Main, to reside with mates in Delaware after these incidents.
The White Home and the Secret Service appeared to minimize the scenario on Tuesday, however the newest incidents elevate questions on why the Bidens introduced one other German shepherd to the chief mansion and why the assaults continued.
Elizabeth Alexander, communications director for first woman Jill Biden, mentioned in an electronic mail that the White Home complicated is a “distinctive and sometimes aggravating setting” for household pets and that the Biden household was “working by way of methods to make this example higher for everybody.”
Anthony Guglielmi, chief spokesperson for the Secret Service, mentioned in a separate electronic mail that his company has for the previous a number of presidents “navigated how greatest to function round household pets and these incidents aren’t any exception. We take the security and wellbeing of our workers extraordinarily severely.”
The Secret Service supplies safety safety for the president and his household, and scores of its officers are posted across the government mansion and its sprawling grounds.
Biden acquired Commander in December 2021 as a present from his brother James. The data launched cowl a fraction of his yr and a half as a presidential pet. The household additionally has a cat, Willow.
On Nov. 3, 2022, a Secret Service official emailed colleagues that Commander had bitten a uniformed officer twice — on the higher proper arm and thigh. Employees from the White Home medical unit handled the officer and determined to have the person taken to a hospital.
A captain of the Uniform Division emailed later that day that he had been suggested that Commander was updated on his vaccinations.
A word the next day added particulars concerning the assault, together with that the officer who was bitten used a metal cart to guard himself from one other assault. The officer later was positioned on a number of days of restricted obligation based mostly on docs’ recommendation.
Alexander mentioned the Bidens have been working with the Secret Service and the White Home residence workers “on further leashing protocols and coaching” for Commander, in addition to establishing designated areas the place he can run round for train.
“The president and first woman are extremely grateful to the Secret Service and Government Residence workers for all they do to maintain them, their household and the nation protected,” Alexander added.
Guglielmi mentioned Secret Service workers are inspired to report job-related accidents to their fast supervisors for applicable documentation.
“As such, we’re conscious of previous incidents involving first-family pets and these cases had been handled equally to comparable office accidents, to incorporate with related notifications and reporting procedures adopted,” he mentioned.
“Whereas particular brokers and officers neither look after nor deal with the primary household’s pets, we constantly work with all relevant entities to reduce antagonistic impacts in an setting that features pets,” Guglielmi added.
Commander is usually seen being led round by the White Home’s chief groundskeeper.
The New York Put up was first to report on Commander’s biting incidents.