Today, The Daily Mail published a photo from last month of Commander nipping at Dale Haney, the WH grounds superintendent who has been walking presidential dogs since Richard Nixon's Irish setter, King Timahoe.https://t.co/SCp5lpNR0J pic.twitter.com/zmVIwnbbSD

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) October 5, 2023

You can see Commander jumping up on Haney and chomping down on his arm. Haney isn’t a new face that triggered Commander’s protective instincts. He is 71-years-old and celebrated his 50th anniversary of tending to the 18 acres of White House gardens and grounds last year.

It was just last week that it was reported that Commander bit his eleventh victim. That isn’t true, as Haney’s bite proves. The White House is not being transparent about the reign of terror that Commander is conducting. Commander has obviously bitten more people at the White House than we know about. That raised the question of how many people does the dog have to bite before he is removed from the White House? It turns out that with this embarrassing story of an unreported bite from last month, Commander was removed from the White House on Wednesday.

People have been speaking out about Commander’s temperament, which is obviously ill-suited for life at the White House. We have written about it recently because it is a dangerous situation for those tasked with protecting the president and for those who work at the White House. I wrote that it is a workplace security issue. Jazz wrote about a difficult truth – the Bidens should not have dogs. It’s a tough situation but Biden has to put humans before dogs. The people that Commander primarily bites, as far as we know, are the Secret Service agents. The people who risk their lives protecting Joe Biden are the ones being hospitalized by his dog. It has to stop.

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York wrote on Tuesday that the president must act on this White House scandal.

“A president who puts his dog over the men and women who put their own lives on the line to save the president of the United States. As Joe Biden might say — not a joke. So when will the president do something about it?” York wrote in his daily memo.

Laura Ingraham addressed the double standard at play. Biden’s dog is getting repeated passes for very bad behavior.

“Don’t we sense the two tiers of justice even applied to the canine perpetrators? Any dog in D.C. that bites one time has to be quarantined for 10 days. You have to get all of the shots. But if that dog bites twice—,” Ingraham said Monday, gesturing that a normal dog would face severe punishment for this behavior.

Dogs who prove to be untrainable are usually put down because of this kind of aggressive behavior. Another Biden dog with biting problems, Major, was placed with family friends. The thing is that we don’t know how much training Commander has really had. The Bidens claim they are working with a dog trainer but if so, perhaps they need to find a different one.

In the District of Columbia, the mayor “may humanely destroy a dog” if it is a threat to the public.

Washington, D.C., government requires that a dog be put “under quarantine” on the owner’s property “for 10 days,” and owners are responsible for damage done by their dog. The District of Columbia Dangerous Dog Statutes place restrictions on dogs that have bitten or attacked pets or people without provocation.

The district mayor is also authorized to “conduct an investigation and make a determination as to whether a dog is a potentially dangerous or dangerous dog.” The owner will be responsible for the impounding cost of a dog considered a threat to public safety.

According to the district code, the mayor “may humanely destroy a dog” if it meets the criteria of being a threat to public safety, the owner fails any special security requirements established by the mayor, the owner fails to pay for impoundment costs, or the owner forfeits dog for destruction.

The White House announced Wednesday that Commander has been removed from the premises. York’s column and Ingraham’s commentary on her Fox show are cited as contributing factors in that decision. Hmm. That sounds like a convenient excuse. Blame the conservatives, right? The truth is that “White House sources” were talking about Commander on Monday, according to the Daily Mail. The tourist who took the photo of Haney’s attack said he was just trying to get a photo of the dog.

The visitor who asked not to be named recalled: ‘I was really just wanting to take pictures of the dog, it’s the next best thing to seeing the president after all.

‘Commander was bouncing around. He seemed very lively, high spirited and playful. He’s a good-looking dog.

‘I only realized he had actually bitten the groundskeeper who was out there with him later when I saw the picture with his teeth quite clearly round the man’s wrist and arm.’

Haney has been walking the dogs of presidents since the days of Richard Nixon and his Irish Setter, King Timahoe. Commander is very familiar with Haney. A photo agency released a photo of Haney walking Commander in August last year.

It’s clear that Jill Biden can’t control Commander. He is a big dog and German shepherds are strong dogs. She recently couldn’t control him as he charged a Secret Service agent. Jill is 71-years-old. The president is 80. They can’t control their dog.

A staff member in the First Lady’s office warned in an email in October 2022 that it was only a matter of time before a Secret Service agent was bit or attacked.

Speaking last week Elizabeth Alexander, communications director for the first lady, said in a statement: ‘The First Family continues to work on ways to help Commander handle the often-unpredictable nature of the White House grounds.’

A former Secret Service agent, Jonathan Wackrow, spoke to CNN last week about the situation. Commander is a workplace hazard.

He said: ‘There’s uniqueness here where it’s the residence of the president of the United States, but it’s also the workplace for hundreds, thousands of people.

‘And you can’t bring a hazard into the workplace. And that’s what is essentially happening with this dog.

‘One time you can say it’s an accident, but now multiple incidents, it’s a serious issue.’

Exactly. Commander is a workplace hazard. He isn’t just a family pet in a normal residence. What about lawsuits? Normal families would potentially face lawsuits against them in such a situation. A homeowners’ policy would assign an adjuster, hire a lawyer for them, and defend the case. It would probably be settled out of court. But the Bidens aren’t regular citizens. When someone sues a federal employee for something that happens on the job, the employee is usually immune from personal liability. The Westfall Act grants that immunity. To claim that immunity, the employee has to prove he or she is a government official covered under the Westfall Act. Then they have to prove the lawsuit is base on conduct within the scope of his or her employment.

The president is a federal employee who falls under the Westfall Act.

For other federal employees, owning a dog likely has nothing to do with their job duties. But a president might be different. According to the White House, historically, presidential dogs have “humaniz[ed] the president’s political image.” Sometimes a dog is a piece of international diplomacy. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gave First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy a dog named Pushinka. At times, the presidential dog has even performed official functions. President Warren Harding’s dog Laddie “greeted official delegations and hosted the 1923 White House Easter Egg Roll when the Hardings were away.”

So the question of whether Biden can be sued for Commander’s biting depends on what Commander’s “job” is—on whether owning Commander is within the President’s official responsibility.

As far as liability goes, the owner is liable in D.C. but Commander is free to keep doing what he is doing, legally speaking, because the president and the United States are immune from civil liability. Apparently this is why we have not read about lawsuits against Biden or the White House. Do we really think Democrat D.C. Mayor Bowser would intervene and force a change at the White House over the dog situation? Nope.

How many others have suffered bites and the public doesn’t know about the attacks? Remember when Biden said his administration would be the most transparent ever? Good times, good times.