The 273 pages of emails and documentswith names redacted, shed new gentle on a interval that generated nice stress contained in the White House earlier than Commander, then age 2, was faraway from the mansion. A earlier presidential canine, Major, was moved out of the White House two years earlier for related causes.
The cache of emails not solely documented numerous episodes in typically graphic element, but in addition captured the trauma and concern amongst Secret Service brokers and officers, who shared methods for the most effective methods to keep away from getting damage. Secret Service personnel had been bitten on the wrist, forearm, elbow, waist, chest, thigh and shoulder. One was saved from damage by his ammunition pouch. Among the paperwork was a photograph of a torn shirt.
“I was in shock that the incident occurred,” wrote one particular agent, who was attacked whereas holding open the door for the president on Oct. 2, 2022, as Mr. Biden took Commander out onto the South Lawn. The canine grabbed the agent’s left arm and stood on his hind legs. “He is literally my height standing,” the agent wrote. Fortunately, a physician discovered no puncture wound. “After this I was concerned about him getting out of the residence or being out without a leash for others’ safety and mine.”
Another agent was not so fortunate. On June 15, 2023, Commander raced towards the agent and lunged at him, inflicting a “deep bite” on the left arm that was reported to have wanted stitches. “East Wing Tours were stopped for approximately 20 minutes due to blood from the incident being on the floors in the area of the Booksellers,” a corridor within the White House, one doc reported.
A month later, one other agent coming into the yard patio of the president’s home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., didn’t understand the canine was there and off leash. The canine bit him, “causing a severe deep open wound,” and the agent “started to lose a significant amount of blood,” a message detailed. The agent “remained calm and walked away from the area looking for help.”
