The White House is, apparently, going to the dogs.
President Harry S. Truman famously said, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” And after four years of a dogless White House under President Donald Trump, Democrat Joe Biden, who appears set to be elected president when the Electoral College votes Dec. 14, is bringing two “friends” with him.
Even though Mr. Trump continues to claim that voter fraud and irregularities at polling sites led to his defeat, the media is going nuts over Biden’s dogs — with one “news” outlet going so far as to call on a pet psychic to channel the soon-to-be First Dogs.
“Joe Biden’s Dogs Have Told This Pet Psychic a Lot About Their Beloved Master, and His Future,” The Daily Beast reported Friday.
The subhead of the piece said: “Pet psychic Beth Lee-Crowther says Joe Biden’s dogs, Major and Champ, told her they are excited to live in the White House. They also say their master will be ‘a great president.’”
Ms. Lee-Crowther hasn’t ever met the dogs, but simply by viewing their pictures, she said “she forged a close relationship with Biden’s dogs — and wow, did they ever dish about their owner, as well as a ‘ramping-up’ of his troubles with the non-conceding President Trump, moving into the White House, their master’s calmness, and even Biden’s plans to govern.”
“They made me feel that he will make a great president,” she said.
The Associated Press, that once venerated purveyor of unbiased news, wrote its own fluff piece headlined, “It’s Major: Pets poised for a return to the White House.”
“In a few weeks, Major, fellow German shepherd Champ and the TBD feline are expected to make the move to the White House. Presidential pets provide their owners with a source of comfort, entertainment, occasional drama and generally good PR,” wrote the AP.
The piece cited Tom Whalen, a presidential historian at Boston University, saying presidential pets cross party lines.
“When a president, the leader of the country, the leader of the free world really, is seen with a dog or a cat, you know, basically there is a bond that they have with their public, whether they’re Republican or Democrat,” Whalen said.
Major, for the record, made his own headlines over the weekend. Biden, 78, reportedly slipped while playing with the dog and suffered hairline fractures in his “mid-foot” that will “likely require a walking boot for several weeks,” his doctor said in a statement Sunday.
“Initial X-rays did not show any obvious fracture, but his clinical exam warranted more detailed imaging,” Dr. Kevin O’Connor said. “Follow-up CT scan confirmed hairline (small) fractures of President-elect Biden’s lateral and intermediate cuneiform bones, which are in the mid-foot. It is anticipated that he will likely require a walking boot for several weeks.”
The injury raised eyebrows about Mr. Biden’s ability to handle the demanding job of being president. “Given his age, that raises those questions in a way that it might not with some of the more recent candidates in the 21st century,” Ted Frantz, a history professor at the University of Indianapolis, told The Washington Times.
Shortly after Election Day, the MSM seized on the Biden dogs, hoping they could bring some happy news — and begin to invalidate Mr. Trump’s claims by offering endless coverage of the pets.
“Biden’s bringing the big dogs to the White House — German shepherds Champ and Major,” NBC News reported.
Said The Washington Post: “Dogs are returning to the White House: Biden’s German shepherds, including the first shelter pup.”
“His two German shepherds, Champ and Major, are expected to join the president-elect and Jill Biden at the White House following his inauguration in January,” wrote the Post. “At 12 years old, Champ is the elder of the pair, while 2-year-old Major, who will become the first shelter dog to live at the White House, was adopted a few months before Biden announced his latest run for the presidency. The German shepherds will fill an empty role at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: President Trump was the first occupant in more than a century not to own a pet of some kind.”
The softball coverage of Mr. Biden’s dogs — even as a legal battle over the election outcome rages — signals the treatment Mr. Biden can expect from the media once he takes office. And Fox News reported this little tidbit after Mr. Biden’s injury: “Reporters covering the president-elect were not afforded the opportunity to see Biden enter the doctor’s office, despite multiple requests.”
“News” outlets downplayed or flat-out ignored that story. But they just can’t get enough of the dogs, and they don’t seem to care a bit whether Mr. Biden — the least questioned presidential candidate in decades — ever throws them a bone.
*Joseph Curl covered the White House for a dozen years and ran the Drudge Report for four years. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter at @JosephCurl. A version of this article ran previously in The Washington Times.