Biden Dogs Champ and Major would make great First Dogs! - Joe and Jill Biden will not enter the Whitehouse alone, but they will be accompanied by their two German shepherds, Champ and Major. If Joe Biden's victory in the U.S. presidential election marks the return of the Democrats to the White House, it is also synonymous with the reappearance of a tradition that dates back to George Washington across the Atlantic.
In fact, on January 20, 2021, Joe Biden and his wife Jill will occupy the White House with their two German shepherds, Champ and Major.
Champ is in the Biden family since 2008, and Major adopted in 2018 in a shelter. They are the first dogs to occupy the Oval Office since the leaving of Bo and Sunny, the Portuguese water dogs of the Obamas, in 2016.
Man's best friends - Biden Dogs Champ and Major
In fact, the Trump presidency was the first in over 100 years not to have a " first dog ", despite internal encouragement to improve its profile. Trump said last year - partway through an immigration speech - that he thought the idea was " phony ".
During the last four years, Donald Trump spent the entirety of his mandate without a domestic animal, which his detractors reproached him for. "He doesn't even have a dog," several Democratic supporters said on a T-shirt.
Americans being very attached to "man's best friends", it is not excluded that this canine duo brought some votes to Barack Obama's former vice-president.
Biden and the German shepherds
During the campaign, Joe Biden, known to be a warm and empathetic man, had not hesitated to play this sensitive string.
He had notably published on Instagram a video of dogs wearing the colors of his ticket with Kamala Harris and added as a caption: "I may be a little biased but I think Champ and Major would make great First Dogs! "Let's bring a dog back into the White House," the video concluded.
The love story between Biden and the German shepherds is not new. "I've had German Shepherds since I was a kid, and I've even trained some of them for shows," he told ABC in 2008.
In September 2020, a Biden supporter started a website "DogLoversForJoe.com" with the slogan: "Choose Your Humans Wisely".
With Champ and Major, Joe Biden is reviving a tradition as old as the United States. However, several four-legged occupants of the White House seem to have left their mark more than others, due to the historical context.
The White House four-legged occupants
In the middle of the Cold War, during the Relaxation phase which marks the end of a period of intense tension, the Soviet head of state Nikita Khrushchev offers John Kennedy a little dog named Pushinka. She is the daughter of Strelka, who had traveled in space.
In the '80s, Ronald Reagan also occupied the Whitehouse with a purebred dog, a King Charles Spaniel Cavalier named Rex. The canine had been with the 40th President of the United States until the end of his term.
Bill Clinton, for his part, had opted instead for the family cat named Socks, a few years later the presidential couple adopted a Labrador named Buddy. Due to the disagreement of these two pets, they placed them in two different wings of the White House.
Just before Donald Trump, Barack Obama had not departed from the rule either when he took his two Portuguese water dogs with him on his presidential trip: Bo, from 2008, Sunny in 2012.