President-Elect Joe Biden Injures Foot While Playing With His Dog

Biden will likely require a walking boot for several weeks.

Joe Biden's dog Major, a German Shepherd, is expected to become the first-ever shelter dog to live in the White House. | Delaware Humane Association
Joe Biden's dog Major, a German Shepherd, is expected to become the first-ever shelter dog to live in the White House. | Delaware Humane Association

President-elect Joe Biden injured his foot while playing with his dog Major on Sunday, and will probably need a walking boot for several weeks, his doctor said.

Biden, 78, was taken to Delaware Orthopaedic Specialists in Newark around 4 p.m., after he slipped while playing with Major. 

“Initial X-rays did not show any obvious fracture, but his clinical exam warranted more detailed imaging,” Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s primary-care doctor, said in a statement. “Follow-up CT scan confirmed hairline (small) fractures of President-elect Biden’s lateral and intermediate cuneiform bones, which are in the mid-foot.”

President Donald Trump on Sunday retweeted a video of Biden leaving treatment.

Journalists and other observers have noted the contrast between immediate transparency about Biden’s relatively minor injury compared with the ambiguity surrounding President Trump’s health, as well as his hospitalization with COVID-19 earlier this fall.

“The previous questions surrounding the fitness of the 78-year-old, and the overall opacity of President Trump’s communication surrounding his own medical status, the injury served as an opportunity for the Biden team to get off on the right foot,” Matt Stieb wrote in New York Magazine.

Biden will become the oldest president in U.S. history when he is inaugurated in January.

The former vice president and Second Lady Jill Biden adopted Major, a German Shepherd, from the Delaware Humane Association in 2018, and the pup is expected to become the first-ever shelter dog to live in the White House. The Bidens will also bring their other dog Champ, who previously lived in the White House, and are reportedly planning to get a cat.