Amid claims of a coverup, President Joe Biden’s press secretary has insisted the Secret Service did a “thorough” investigation
FILE PHOTO: President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden watch a fireworks show at the White House, July 4, 2023 © AP / Susan Walsh
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has given the Secret Service a vote of confidence for its “thorough” probe of the cocaine found in the West Wing earlier this month, even as Republican lawmakers and other critics suggest that investigators avoided identifying a suspect before dropping the case last week.
Asked by a reporter on Monday how President Joe Biden reacted to the news that investigators failed to solve the case, Jean-Pierre said, “I’m just not going to opine on this, not going to get into specifics on this. We believe the Secret Service did a thorough investigation. We’ve been briefed on the outcome. They shared the details in a public statement, which I think is important for the American people to hear directly from the Secret Service, who did the investigation.”
The Secret Service announced on Thursday that it was ending the investigation because there was no physical evidence in the case and no surveillance footage that would provide any leads. A plastic bag of cocaine was found in the West Wing on July 2, while Biden and his family were visiting the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
"Can you just talk about [Biden's] reaction when he learned that the [cocaine] investigation did not end with a suspect?"KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: "No" pic.twitter.com/mgo6aDXn5v
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 17, 2023
US Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) said members of Congress have gotten “no answers” on the case from the Secret Service. He and other Republicans have questioned how the agency couldn’t determine who brought a dangerous substance into one of the most secure buildings in the world.
Cotton said the investigation was concluded without even interviewing Biden’s cocaine-addicted son, Hunter Biden. The younger Biden and other family members were reportedly seen at the White House – contrary to a previous claim by Jean-Pierre – two days before the drug was found. “This is like if Hamburglar lived in the White House, all the hamburgers disappeared, and they said they didn’t have any suspects or no one they could question,” Cotton said on Sunday in a Fox News interview.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) reacted to the Secret Service’s statement on Thursday by calling the probe a “farce.” He told Fox News: “You can’t tell me in the White House, with 24/7 surveillance in a cubby hole by a Situation Room that they don’t know who delivered it there. We should get an answer to the question.”
New York Post columnist Miranda Devine pointed out on Sunday that the Biden administration had no hesitance in rounding up hundreds of people “for just being in the vicinity of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.” In contrast, the Secret Service declined to interview any of the potential suspects who were in the West Wing, citing concerns over civil liberties.
“They didn’t find anyone because they didn’t want to find anyone,” former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernie Kerik told Devine.
.@dbongino weighs in on the White House cocaine mystery: "A lot of my former colleagues in the Secret Service…they are absolutely furious about this….These are good guys, guys who worked for Obama and Bush…they know exactly who it was." pic.twitter.com/6Mt0r5jc9K
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) July 16, 2023
Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, now a conservative podcast host, said the case was easily solvable, and he believes the White House pressured the agency “to not find out who did it.” He said other former Secret Service agents are “furious” about the failed probe. “You’re going to destroy faith in this elite agency.”
