James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme allied commander for Europe, joked on Friday that President Joe Biden’s dog, Commander, should be deployed to Ukraine after reports of several biting incidents involving Secret Service agents.
“I continue to support the Administration giving Kyiv everything they need to drive the Russians out of Ukraine. Has the White House considered forward deploying the President’s dog, Commander and his running mate, the senior former WH dog Major?” Stavridis, a retired U.S. Navy admiral, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Last month, Newsweek confirmed with a spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service that Commander, a 2-year-old German Shepherd, bit an agent. The spokesperson said “the officer was treated by medical personnel on complex.”
Prior to the most recent biting incident last month, the White House previously confirmed that a Secret Service officer was hospitalized after a bite from Commander in November 2022. The Times also reported in July that internal emails obtained by a watchdog group showed that Commander bit several Secret Service agents since arriving at the White House in 2021 and exhibited “aggressive behavior.”
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The post from Stavridis comes shortly after The New York Times confirmed that Commander was no longer living in the White House.
“Commander is not presently on the White House campus while next steps are evaluated,” Elizabeth Alexander, a spokesperson for first lady Jill Biden, said in a statement to the newspaper on Thursday.
In addition to Commander, Biden’s other dog, Major, was previously removed from the White House in 2021 following a biting incident.
“Major, the Bidens’ younger dog will undergo some additional training to help him adjust to life in the White House,” Michael LaRosa, the spokesman for Jill Biden, said in a statement to the Times in 2021. “The off-site, private training will take place in the Washington area, and it is expected to last a few weeks.”
Last week, the Instagram account for Commander (@commanderfirstdog) posted a photo, with a caption that read, “Didn’t nibble a soul! Whatever you’ve heard is just puppy tales.”
In the comments section of the post, many social media users defended the canine and pointed toward the environment of living in the White House as a dog.
“Clearly, the environment is challenging for this dog, as it might be for any dog (or human) to live in,” one Instagram user commented. “I would judge Commander’s behavior to be 100% appropriate based on his experience in those moments. There’s not much value in generally assigning motives, criticism, or adjectives to it.”
In July, White House officials said that the Biden family were working with the Secret Service on new training for the family pet and designated areas within the grounds for it to be unleashed.
Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.