All three of Joe Biden’s dogs have attacked White House staffers and United States Secret Service (USSS) agents through the years, with the most vicious Biden dog reportedly biting personnel at least 24 times in nine months.
The Bidens had two German Shepherds when they moved into the White House in January 2021, Champ (then-13) and Major (then-3). Almost immediately, White House staff complained about the dogs’ aggressive behavior. In the wake of at least one “biting incident,” which was widely covered by the media in March 2021, Major was sent back to Delaware.
Then-Press Secretary Jen Psaki seemed to suggest that the biting incident was the fault of the victim.
“[Champ and Major] are still getting acclimated and accustomed to their surroundings and new people. And on Monday, the first family’s younger dog, Major, was surprised by an unfamiliar person and reacted in a way that resulted in a minor injury to the individual,” Psaki told reporters at the time.
After the embarrassing media coverage died down, the Bidens brought Major back to the White House where he continued to bite agents and staff.
The older dog Champ was also known to menace staff and agents, according to George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley.
After Champ died in June of 2021, the Bidens announced the arrival of a German Shepherd puppy named Commander—who turned out to be the most vicious one of all, attacking staffers at least 24 times between October 2022 and June of 2023.
CNN obtained more than 400 pages of documents of internal USSS documents through a Freedom of Information Act request, including an itemized report showing that Commander chomped arms, hands, wrists, shoulders, legs, a chest, a back, and even one agent’s magazine pouch. Nearly half of the injuries required treatment by the White House Medical Unit.
Those incidents don’t even include previously reported attacks involving executive residence staff and other White House workers, according to CNN.
“The recent dog bites have challenged us to adjust our operational tactics when Commander is present – please give lots of room,” an unnamed assistant special agent in charge of USSS’ Presidential Protective Division wrote in a June 2023 email, warning that agents “must be creative to ensure our own personal safety.”
Commander was removed from the White House a few months later, after biting several more staffers.
The internal documents show that Secret Service members were concerned that the canine’s vicious behavior could escalate and pose an even greater threat to White House staff.
“In October 2022, an unnamed Secret Service technician described an incident and said they were ‘worried about the family pets behavior escalating and that … something worse was going to happen to others,'” CNN reported.
The documented incidents included members of the Secret Service’s uniformed division, members of the president’s protective detail and other USSS officials. They took place inside and outside of the White House residence, but also at Biden family homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, at Camp David, and in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where the first family spends the Thanksgiving holiday.
One internal email describes a particularly bloody and harrowing incident in Delaware on July 29, 2023.
An unnamed special agent from the presidential protective division’s counter surveillance unit was providing security coverage in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, the report said. As the agent walked to a backyard security post, the agent heard Commander start to bark, the report said, but did not realize Commander was “loose and off leash.”
“In the background SA [redacted] heard the voice of what believes to be FLOTUS Dr. Jill Biden [redacted] yelling [redacted quote]. Commander ran toward the direction of post [redacted] booth and bit SA [redacted in the left forearm. Causing a severe deep open wound. As result of the attack SA [redacted] started to loose (sic) a significant amount of blood from [redacted] arm,” the report said.
The agent was treated on site and received six stitches to his left forearm, as well as antibiotics for the wound, the report said.
CNN obtained a photo showing the torn shirt of another agent who was attacked by Commander.
“The incidents involving Commander were treated as workplace injuries, with events documented in accordance with Secret Service and US Department of Homeland Security guidelines,” Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesperson for USSS, told CNN in a statement Wednesday.
“While Secret Service personnel neither handle nor care for the first family’s pets, we work continuously with all applicable entities in order to minimize any adverse impacts from family pets,” he said.
The White House has been less than forthcoming about the incidents, only partially confirming past attacks when pressed by the media.
But a Biden family insider told CNN that the Biden family feels “awful” and has been “heartbroken” over all the dog attacks.
“They’ve been heartbroken over this. They’ve apologized to those who have been bitten, taken flowers to some. They feel awful. Commander was over-protective, and even though they tried and tried to work on it, they had to let him go live with other members of their family,” the source said.
“The president and first lady care deeply about the safety of those who work at the White House and those who protect them every day. Despite additional dog training, leashing, working with veterinarians, and consulting with animal behaviorists, the White House environment simply proved too much for Commander. Since the fall, he has lived with other family members,” Elizabeth Alexander, first lady Jill Biden’s communications director, said in a statement provided to CNN.
Joe and Jill Biden’s dismissive attitude over the years, however, belie those comments. They have both downplayed the attacks and Joe Biden even allegedly accused the Secret Service of making up one of the incidents.
In his 2023 book, “The Fight of His Life,” author Chris Whipple detailed how Biden suggested the Secret Service was lying. While giving a friend a White House tour, according to Whipple, Biden pointed to the spot where Major allegedly bit a USSS agent. “Look, the Secret Service are never up here. It didn’t happen,” Biden said.
According to Whipple, Biden distrusts the Secret Service and does not speak freely in front of his agents, whom he suspects are “MAGA sympathizers.”
Biden has had tense relations with the Secret Service since he was vice president under Barack Obama, when he allegedly had a habit of exposing himself to female agents. Biden apparently insisted on swimming in the nude in front of the female agents, and they complained.
“Mr. Biden’s lack of consideration was even more stunning when it came to female agents, who were offended that the vice president bizarrely swam naked in front of them often daily at his pools at the vice president’s residence in Washington and at his home in Delaware,” wrote author and journalist Ronald Kessler in the Washington Times. Kessler is the author of The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents.”
Kessler claimed in the Times: “agents considered being assigned to Biden’s detail the second-worst assignment in the Secret Service”—just behind Hillary Clinton.
Since the Obama years, Biden’s distrust of the Secret Service has apparently intensified due to his unhinged hatred of Donald Trump and “MAGA Republicans.”
According to Whipple, he views the Secret Service as “the enemy within” and believes that it is populated by “MAGA sympathizers” due to the fact that the service “is full of white ex-cops from the South who tend to be deeply conservative.”
“They have used these agents like a captive staff who cannot readily complain or sue over their failure to control their dogs,” argued Turley. It also raises questions of whether this family should have dogs. If there was just one dog, it could be discounted as a problem pet. The Bidens how have multiple dogs which developed the same vicious propensity.”
Outside of the Biden White House, Biden’s pets “would qualify for strict liability under the common law as displaying a vicious disposition,” Turley wrote.
I have taught torts for three decades, including animal liability. In that time, I have never come across a case with such a long history of dog attacks from multiple animals in one family. There is no question that the Bidens would be strictly liable in these attacks, but have been allowed to escape such liability due to the fact that this is the official residence.
Under the common law, the Bidens could claim that Major and Commander were entitled to ‘one free bite.’ They are well beyond that threshold.
The ‘one free bite rule’ is a commonly misunderstood torts doctrine — suggesting that you are not subject to strict liability until after the first time your dog bites someone. In fact, you are subject to strict liability whenever you know or have reason to know of the vicious propensity of your animal. That can be satisfied by conduct such as frequent snapping or aggressive behavior.
However, even with Major, the Bidens failed to protect agents and others. Now they have shown the same failure with Commander.
Indeed, a family with this history of dog attacks (with successive pets) would face a highly skeptical, if not hostile, court in a tort action.
The fact that all of Biden family’s German Shepherds have displayed aggressive behavior, has made people question what is going on behind the scenes at the Biden White House.
Is it possible Biden’s dogs sensed their master’s animosity toward the USSS? Have the dogs been abused in some way?
A source told Judicial Watch last fall that Joe Biden “has mistreated his dogs” and has even “punched and kicked his dogs.”
“It is beyond belief that, even after Judicial Watch exposed their attacking ten Secret Service personnel, Joe and Jill Biden have continued to let their dog menace and attack Secret Service and White House staff. Let’s be blunt: the dangerous dog could kill someone,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton last October. “The ongoing Biden administration cover-up of the Biden dog attacks on Secret Service agents is dangerous corruption.”
Turley said that in a court of law, “the Bidens would likely be viewed as knowing the vicious propensity of Commander and subject to strict liability.” He added, “they showed a pattern of knowledge and a lack of precautions not just with regard to this dog but all of their dogs.”
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