On Wednesday, 20 January, as Joe Biden took oath as the 46th President of the United States, media organisations worldwide had started a frenzy of special coverage, videos and information highlighting how the new US President is going to be different than the previous one.
Reuters, owned by the UK-based Thomson Reuters group, shared a video on the former US Presidents and their ‘dogs’. Reuters put out a video hailing Joe Biden’s dog ‘Major’, a German Shepherd, as the first rescue dog to be welcomed into the White House. Not just Biden’s dog, Reuters went on to point out that former Presidents too had pets in the White House during their presidency.
Joe Biden’s German Shepherd Major is the first rescue dog to be welcomed into the White House https://t.co/Ks6VKFofd7 pic.twitter.com/AaLhuvntRs
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 20, 2021
In the video, Reuters narrated how Obama had brought two dogs – ‘Sunny’ and ‘Bo’ into the White House, following George Bush’s tradition, who too had two dogs – Beazley and Barney.
“The Clintons’ Chocolate Labrador Retriever – ‘Buddy’, joined cat Socks at the White House; while George H.W. Bush and family had several dogs in the White House, including Millie, the star of a children’s book written by Bush’s wife Barbara,” said the Reuters report as they shared images of ‘First dogs’ next to the respective Presidents.
Reuters takes a cheap potshot at two Asian Prime Ministers
Continuing to shower praise on various former Presidents and current President Joe Biden for carrying out the traditions of bringing dogs to the White House, Reuters said how the outgoing President Donald Trump was the first president since Andrew Johnson in the 1860s not to share the presidential digs with a dog or a cat – or even a raccoon, ‘like the one kept by Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s’.
However, when depicting Trump’s apparent lack of interest in pets, the Reuters video added the clips of two Asian nation heads, Indian PM Narendra Modi and former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe meeting President Trump. From thousands of clips of former President Trump, Reuters chose the one with PM Modi and ex Japanese PM Shinzo Abe while talking about ‘pets’. Interestingly, both these world leaders were awarded ‘Legion of Merit’ – one of the highest military awards of the United States Armed Forces.
There are literally thousands of video clips of ex-President Trump, but Reuters chose to use the one with two Asian leaders on its video on White House pets and dogs.
Here is a video of Trump with Conan, the dog injured in Baghdadi raid. This clip could also have been used to talk about pets in White House.
Joe Biden takes oath as 46th President of the United States
On Wednesday, Joseph Robinette Biden took oath as the 46th President of the United States. “This is America’s day. This is Democracy’s day. The day of history and hope,” Biden said in his inaugural address after taking the oath.
“Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause — the cause of Democracy. The will of the people has been heard and the will of the people has been heeded,” Biden said.
Joe Biden was administered the oath by Chief Justice John Roberts. Just prior to that, Kamala Devi Harris, the first woman, African-American and Indian-American to hold the vice-presidency, was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor – the first Latina in the US top court.
