The Oval Office, the president’s executive offices, the Cabinet Room, the Roosevelt Room, and the press briefing room—where hundreds of reporters and photographers spend each day—are all located in the West Wing, the hub of the White House’s activities.
Without a pass provided by the United States Secret Service (USSS), you are unable to enter any of these locations; but, if your last name is Biden, for example, you may be permitted entry.
A report from the Associated Press made a point of stating twice that the cocaine was discovered in a public area.
“The White House was briefly evacuated Sunday evening while President Joe Biden was at Camp David after the Secret Service discovered suspicious powder in a common area of the West Wing, and a preliminary test showed the substance was cocaine, two law enforcement officials said Tuesday,” the AP said.
The next paragraph said, “Secret Service agents were doing routine rounds on Sunday when they found the white powder in an area accessible to tour groups, not in any particular West Wing office, the officials said.”
But the White House’s official webpage says “Visitors will see multiple rooms in the East Wing and Residence, including the State Dining Room, East Room, Blue Room, Red Room, Green Room, and the Family Theater.” So, none of the rooms in the West Wing.
Over the course of my twelve years as a journalist inside the White House, I never once witnessed a tour group enter. Visitors enter from East Executive Avenue and proceed inside the East Wing, which is next to the Treasury Department.
We never visited the West Wing even though I may have taken the tour a dozen times with family and friends. We occasionally went to the Diplomatic Room, the Library, and a hallway with pictures of previous presidents and first women, but that was about it.
It’s all weird.
“Radio dispatches by the D.C. Fire Department and reviewed by DailyMail.com, suggested the substance had been found in the library two floors below the private White House residence — and part of the public tour,” the UK paper reported.
But that changed quickly.
“A Secret Service statement confirms that the cocaine was found in a ‘work area’ and not the library,” the Daily Mail reported.
“On Sunday evening, the White House complex went into a precautionary closure as officers from the Secret Service Uniformed Division investigated an unknown item found inside a work area,” the USSS statement reads. “The DC Fire Department was called to evaluate and quickly determined the item to be non-hazardous.”
Once more, the AP was careful to point out that neither President Joe Biden nor his son Hunter, a former cocaine addict, were present at the time. Biden and his family spent the long weekend at Camp David, the president’s hideaway in Maryland.
“They never found cocaine in the Trump White House!” Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) wrote on Twitter.
They never found cocaine in the Trump White House!
— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) July 4, 2023
And he posted another tweet with a drawing that has been liked nearly 4,000 times.
What a disgrace pic.twitter.com/S3rBLjjVQc
— Jim Banks (@RepJimBanks) July 4, 2023
Hunter Biden, who has suffered from substance misuse, was also the target of some. On Friday, he was in the White House before traveling to Camp David with his father.
“It wouldn’t be a thumpin’ July 4th weekend without Hunter Biden ripping lines off of a bust of Teddy Roosevelt,” Newsmax host Robb Schmitt said.
“It Appears that Cocaine, has been Found at the White House. –And it Wouldn’t be a Thumping July 4th Weekend, Without Hunter Biden Ripping Lines Off a Bust of Teddy Roosevelt.” pic.twitter.com/dCE0OGMAo2
— Tony Kambeitz (@Kambeitz9) July 4, 2023
Just this week, images of Hunter Biden driving to Las Vegas while smoking a crack pipe reappeared.
And this month, Hunter Biden and the Justice Department came to an amicable agreement in which he will acknowledge the truth of an allegation involving a firearm. He is accused of checking a box that would have prevented him from completing the transaction by saying he didn’t use illegal narcotics.
