Commander booted from White House after latest biting incident
'Outnumbered' panelists discuss the Biden family dog's poor behavior after his 12th known biting incident.
New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni criticized President Biden this week for how he's handled his dog, saying he'd "failed" the canine who has nearly a dozen reported biting incidents in the White House.
In the piece, Bruni sympathized with Biden over having a busy job and not being able to spend enough time with the dog, but declared that Biden had fallen short as an owner.
The author, who described himself "as fierce a dog lover as you’re likely to find," said he "struggles with how President Biden and his family handled their German shepherd Commander, who should have been a balm to a man with such grueling business."
BIDEN'S DOG, MAJOR, BIT SECRET SERVICE MEMBERS FOR 8 DAYS IN ROW, EMAIL SAYS
New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni accused President Biden of failing his German Shepherd "Commander," who bit Secret Service members at least 11 times while in the White House. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Bruni detailed the various biting incidents which were uncovered by conservative watchdog records requests. Commander has since been moved to an undisclosed location, First Lady Jill Biden's office announced last week.
"Did it have to come to this?" Bruni lamented, before theorizing what he believed the problem with the dog was. "The trouble, I suspect, was a star-crossed pairing: a man who really needed a dog at this stressful juncture of his life and a dog who really needed circumstances less stressful than those that the man provided."
"Biden obviously didn’t want to reckon with that contradiction," Bruni wrote, hypothesizing that perhaps "his reluctance reflected a highhanded dismissiveness about the safety and sanity of agents in his security detail and of people on the White House staff."
Bruni chided Biden for this being the second dog this has happened to during his term in the White House.
"Two years ago, he sent away Major, another German shepherd who bit at least two people. In one sense, that history makes his indulgence of Commander doubly damning: Hadn’t Biden learned his lesson?" he asked.
BIDEN'S DOG MAJOR BITES ANOTHER WHITE HOUSE EMPLOYEE
Bruni consulted professional dog trainer Nick White, a man who he claimed also worked in the U.S. Secret Service for some years, to assess Commander’s situation. He said, "You need to get your dog out and socialize them — get them around as many people as possible, around as many different looks of people as possible: men, women, Indian Americans, African Americans."
According to the trainer, Commander’s biting incidents show he didn’t get much socialization. And he claimed that the dog should have never been able to bite as many times as it did.
"No dog should have 11 bites," he said. "I personally can’t think of a client off the top of my head over 15 years of business who has said, ‘Hey, my dog has bit 11 people,’ if that gives you some perspective. I’ve heard two. I’ve heard three."
Tom Davis, a dog trainer Fox News Digital spoke to about Commander’s incidents, said, "I have never heard of a dog have more than seven bites and still be alive."
White told Bruni, "The biggest misstep in my opinion that President Biden made is deciding to get a new dog when you’re becoming president of the United States. If somebody says to me, ‘Hey, Nick, you’re going to be president of the United States next year,’ I’m not going to say, ‘Hey, let’s have a new baby."
Bruni agreed, stating, "That’s wise. Fair. There’s no denying that Biden failed the people around him. He failed Commander."
He concluded his piece with an expression of sadness for Biden and his dog: "I see a man known to radiate a gooey and goofy warmth having it replenished. And I’m just plain sad for both of them."
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 25: Commander, the dog of U.S. President Joe Biden, looks on as Biden departs on the south lawn of the White House on June 25, 2022 in Washington, DC. Biden is traveling to Europe this weekend for the G7 and NATO Summits. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images))
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