Washington: Several days after a trace amount of cocaine prompted an evacuation of the grounds, US Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene questioned whether President Joe Biden's son Hunter and the other residents of the White House could pass a drug test in a tweet on Wednesday.
Greene tweeted, "I'd also like to know if Hunter Biden, [White House] staff, and administration can all pass a drug test.
The flamboyant conservative also questioned the president's sobriety, asking, "What list of meds or drugs is Joe taking?"
Both responses were made in response to a video from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in which she directed all questions to the Secret Service and emphasised that the Bidens were not in Washington, DC, when the discovery was made because they had left on Friday and returned on Tuesday for the Fourth of July celebration.
After a uniformed Secret Service division officer found the baggie in a storage cubby used by visitors to stow electronics at an entryway into the complex's West Wing on Sunday, the White House was briefly evacuated and the grounds cleared "as a precaution". The DC Fire Department tested the substance and determined it to be nonhazardous. A subsequent test confirmed the substance to be cocaine.
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An official involved in the investigation told NBC that the Secret Service and the FBI are cooperating to look into how the cocaine got to the West Wing. Agents will use entrance logs, security cameras, and DNA and fingerprint analysis on the baggie in addition to a full chemical analysis to try to identify the offender.
However, given the volume of foot traffic in the area, there is little chance of locating the owner, a different government official involved in the investigation told Politico on Wednesday. The location is "a bit of a thoroughfare," the person said, adding that "even if there were surveillance cameras, unless you were waving it around, it may not have been caught." People frequently stroll by there.
Rep. Greene was not the only one of the president's detractors who couldn't resist linking the discovery to him even in the absence of any concrete evidence because of Hunter Biden's addiction to crack, a smokable form of cocaine.
Does anyone actually think that the cocaine that was discovered in the West Wing of the White House, very near the Oval Office, is for use by anyone besides Hunter and Joe Biden? On his Truth Social website, former president Donald Trump posed the question.
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Given that Hunter left on Friday with the rest of the family and that it was "inconceivable" that cocaine could sit undiscovered in a White House cubby for three days, former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany ruled out the possibility that Hunter was the source of the drugs. Every day, Secret Service agents search the area.
