Joe Biden‘s tension with his Secret Service detail goes back to his years as vice president when he made female agents uncomfortable by skinny-dipping in front of them but it’s gotten worse during his White House years after his German Shepherds bit several agents.
Biden’s new two-year-old dog Commander has bitten at least a dozen agents plus people who work in the White House residence, requiring some to get medical attention. And the first couple’s former dog Major was so aggressive and prone to biting that he was rehomed to friends in Delaware.
‘It’s outrageous, just outrageous for those agents who risk their lives every day to protect the president,’ Ronald Kessler, the author of several books on the Secret Service, told DailyMail.com. ‘They never know when they’re gonna get shot and they have to put up with with the fear of being bitten by a dog. It’s just unthinkable that it went on this long.’
Commander has been moved off campus, living at an undisclosed location. Earlier, DailyMail.com published exclusive photos showing the dog biting the superintendent of the White House grounds on September 13.
President Joe Biden with his Secret Service detail
Tenions have risen between Biden and his agents since Commander (above) has bitten members of the president’s detail
The Bidens’ relationship with the Secret Service is now ‘combustible,’ a source told CNN, citing the tensions with the first pets, constant schedule changes and other issues.
The Secret Service denied there were any problems.
‘On this I can say with firsthand knowledge that it is categorically false. There is an immense degree of trust and respect between the Secret Service and the first family and we know those feelings are mutual,’ Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told DailyMail.com in a statement.
The tensions are said to have started during Biden’s time as vice president, and to have continued in his early days in the White House.
‘Agents say that, whether at the vice president’s residence or at his home in Delaware, Biden has a habit of swimming in his pool nude,’ Kessler wrote in his book, The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents.
‘Female Secret Service agents find that offensive,’ he noted.
Kessler also outlined the agents’ frustration with Biden’s constantly-changing schedule and frequent trips to his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
‘He would never give agents any kind of pre-warning of what his schedule was going to be,’ Kessler told DailyMail.com. ‘He would just, on the spur of the moment, decide to go back to Wilmington, frequently, more than once a week. And so they could never plan their their lives. They could never set up a social occasion.’
He noted agents considered Biden duty the ‘second worst assignment.’ The top spot went to being on Hillary Clinton‘s detail.
The mistrust goes both ways.
The Bidens were also said to be suspicious of their agents, many of whom they suspected supported Donald Trump.
A level of trust is important, given the close quarters. Agents shadow the first couple wherever they go, often overhearing private conversations and witnessing private moments.
‘It seems to me that it’s it’s critical,’ Christopher Whipple, author of The Fight for His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, told DailyMail.com. ‘For the most obvious reasons that the President’s safety depends upon it.’
‘But I think I think he also has a right to assume that the Secret Service check their politics at the door and that he can have confidential conversations without worrying about whether there’s a MAGA sympathizer that will report that to someone else.’
The pool at the vice president’s residence – when Joe Biden lived there he made his Secret Service detail uncomfortable when he skinny dipped
Joe and Jill Biden with Commander, who they received as a gift in 2021
A White House staffer walks Commander Biden on the South Lawn
Joe and Jill Biden play with Commander at Rehoboth Beach in December 2021
Commander Biden no longer living at White House after biting incidents
The Bidens aren’t the first presidential couple to worry about the agents’ political ties. The Clintons were worried their detail were still loyal to George W. Bush and his family.
Additionally, adjusting to the fishbowl life in the White House – where agents and staff are around 24/7 – can be difficult for every first couple. Even Melania Trump, who had a large staff and private security when she lived at Trump Tower, was said to find life in the White House stifling.
But the recent spate of dog bites have ratcheted up the tension.
Commander was a birthday gift to the president from James and Sara Biden, his brother and sister-in-law, and first came to the White House on December 20, 2021.
The pet’s biting record was released in July when a conservative group used a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain emails from Secret Service officials.
It was revealed the 2-year-old German Shepherd has bitten at least a dozen Secret Service agents. Later reports found he also went after staff in the residence.
And the Bidens’ earlier dog Major was so aggressive that residence officials warned Jill Biden‘s office the Bidens could face a lawsuit for injuries unless there were changes, Axios reported.
Major was eventually given to Biden friends in Delaware.
When at the White House, Commander lives upstairs with the first couple. Jill Biden walks him in the mornings and when she is at home. Otherwise Dale Haney, the longtime groundskeeper takes him out, or residence staff do so.
German shepherds can be aggressive and are known to defend those they consider family.
The Biden administration has defended the dog. Jill Biden’s office has noted that the White House ‘can be a stressful environment for family pets, and the First Family continues to work on ways to help Commander handle the often unpredictable nature of the White House grounds.’
But a former White House official who regularly interacted with both Commander and Major told Axios: ‘The first family and their inner circle refuse to engage in any problem-solving discussions to protect the agents and [Executive Residence] staff.’
‘The ongoing discipline issue of the Biden dogs is in no way a Secret Service problem. The agency is just trying to protect their own agents from these animals who do have violent behaviors.’
President Joe Biden had entered the White House with two German Shepherds, Champ – who died in 2021 – and Major who was removed that year
A photo obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com shows Commander biting yet another staffer at the White House last month
The incident, which was unwittingly captured on camera by a tourist snapping photos on September 13, shows the two-year-old German Shepherd sinking its teeth into the groundskeeper Dale Haney’s left arm
The White House has claimed that ‘everyone loves’ Commander.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that she has never felt threatened by the dog.
‘I’ve seen Commander many times. I was never worried. And I’ve never been bitten by Commander,’ she said.
‘As it relates to me, I was never wary of Commander. I’ve seen him many, many times. And so I can only speak for myself though, and I can’t speak to any anything else outside of that,’ she added.
White House officials said the Bidens were working through new training for Commander.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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