If you’re a dog lover (or a cat lover), there’s really only one choice on the ballot this November: Joe Biden. How owners treat their pets reveals much about their character. Joe Biden passes the test with flying colors, while Donald Trump gets an incomplete at best.
In recent days we’ve been deluged with stories about how South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a potential Trump VP pick, wrote in her soon-to-be-published book that she shot her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer pup Cricket. Cricket’s apparent sins were being overly enthusiastic, spoiling a pheasant hunt, and killing a neighbor’s chickens.
Noem said she “hated” Cricket because the pup was “untrainable,” “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with,” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog.”
In the face of a growing backlash from Democrats and Republicans alike, Noem doubled down on Sunday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing that “people are looking for leaders who are authentic, willing to learn from the past, and don’t shy away from tough challenges,"
The Democratic National Committee issued a statement on behalf of “the dogs of the DNC, aka the Dogmocratic Party,” that read, ”As DNC’s canine companions, we’ve heard a lot from our owners about just how extreme and dangerous Donald Trump and his far-right MAGA allies are—but nothing could prepare us for the truly disturbing and horrifying passages Kristi Noem willingly chose to put in her new book. Our message is plain and simple: If you want elected officials who don’t brag about brutally killing their pets as part of their self-promotional book tour, then listen to our owners—and vote Democrat.”
And if you want to find a couple that are true blue dog lovers, then look no further than President Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
When the Bidens entered the White House in January 2021, they brought two German shepherds, Champ and Major. There had been no pets in the White House during Trump’s presidency—unless you want to count his son Eric.
The Bidens got Champ as from a breeder in 2008, shortly before he became vice president. They chose the name because while growing up, Biden’s dad always told him, “Get up, champ,” whenever he was having a tough time.
Major made history by being the first rescue dog ever to live in the White House. The Bidens adopted Major in 2018 from the Delaware Humane Association.
“We are so happy to welcome Major to the Biden family, and we are grateful to the Delaware Humane Association for their work in finding forever homes for Major and countless other animals,” the Bidens announced.
Major was meant to be a companion for Champ, who was getting on in years.
Not long after the Bidens settled into the White House, both dogs were sent to live at the Bidens’ home in Delaware after Major bit a member of the White House security detail.
In June 2021, Champ died and the Bidens issued a moving statement about the loss of their beloved pet.
“Our hearts are heavy today as we let you all know that our beloved German Shepherd, Champ, passed away peacefully at home. He was our constant, cherished companion during the last 13 years and was adored by the entire Biden family,” the Bidens said.
“He loved nothing more than curling up at our feet in front of a fire at the end of the day, joining us as a comforting presence in meetings, or sunning himself in the White House garden,” they reminisced. “In his younger days, he was happiest chasing golf balls on the front lawn of the Naval Observatory or racing to catch our grandchildren as they ran around our backyard in Delaware.”
As for Major, the Bidens found a new home for him.
"After consulting with dog trainers, animal behaviorists, and veterinarians, the First Family has decided to follow the experts' collective recommendation that it would be safest for Major to live in a quieter environment with family friends," Jill Biden’s press secretary Michael LaRosa told NPR.
In January 2022, the first lady adopted a gray shorthaired tabby cat named Willow who had first caught her attention by interrupting a speech she was giving at a Pennsylvania farm during the 2020 presidential campaign.
A month earlier, a 4-month-old German shepherd puppy, Commander, had become the newest Biden family member. The puppy was a birthday gift from the president’s brother and sister-in-law, James and Sara Biden.
But Commander never adjusted well to life in the White House and was apparently overprotective of the president. The dog bit Secret Service personnel in at least 24 incidents at the White House and other locations, according to internal Secret Service documents obtained by CNN.
Jill Biden’s communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, told CNN in February that the first family tried to get a handle on the situation for months and cared “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,” Alexander said. “Since the fall, he has lived with other family members.”
Now just imagine what Kristi Noem would have done to Commander, and compare that to how the Bidens handled an even more difficult situation.
And that brings us to Trump. He’s one of only three presidents not to have any pets in the White House. The other two were Martin Van Buren, who was in office from 1837 to 1841, and James K. Polk, who resided there from 1845 to 1849. And you have to go back to cat and parrot owner William McKinley in 1897 to find the last president besides Trump who did not have a dog.
“The presidency is an incredibly lonely job with pressures and burdens few people can possibly understand,” Lindsay M. Chervinsky, a senior fellow at Southern Methodist University’s Center for Presidential History, told The New York Times. “Accordingly, most presidents have found it enormously helpful to have dog-friends who don’t really care what they did right or wrong, don’t care about the poll numbers or fund-raising goals, and simply love them regardless.”
Trump actually explained why he didn’t have a dog during a rally in El Paso, Texas, in February 2019.
The Washington Post reported that Trump was riffing about the abilities of German shepherds to sniff out drugs being smuggled across the border.
“You do love your dogs, don’t you?” Trump asked the crowd. “I wouldn’t mind having one, honestly, but I don’t have any time. How would I look walking a dog on the White House lawn?”
The supporters seated behind the riser apparently thought that he would look great with a hound or two because they stood up and clapped. But Trump wasn’t having it.
“I don’t know, I don’t feel good,” he said. “Feels a little phony to me.” A lot of people had told him to get a dog because it would look good politically, he added, but he hadn’t felt the need because “that’s not the relationship I have with my people.”
And maybe it just so happens that Trump simply doesn’t like dogs.
In her memoir “Raising Trump,” his first wife Ivana wrote that he only reluctantly agreed to allow her poodle Chappy to live with them in New York and claimed he was "not a dog fan." She wrote:
So I spent my first month in New York exploring the city with my poodle at my side. Donald was not a dog fan. When I told him I was bringing Chappy with me to New York, he said, "No." "It's me and Chappy or no one!" I insisted, and that was that ...
I've told you about Chappy and his deep love for my chinchilla coat. He had an equal dislike of Donald. Whenever Donald went near my closet, Chappy would bark at him territorially.
Trump did make an exception for some dogs. As an elitist, he did welcome purebred winners of the Westminster Dog Show to his Trump Tower office for a photo op for several years before he was elected president.
And then there’s Trump’s disturbing tendency to use the word “dog” in a derogatory manner to describe people who’ve offended him.
Mitt Romney “choked like a dog.”
And there were repeated instances in which he insulted women by referring to them as dogs:
So maybe Noem, the proud puppy shooter, is still very much in the running for Trump’s VP pick.
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