OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lost her temper with reporters on Friday after they continued to badger her with questions about who the cocaine found earlier this week in the White House belonged to.
The press secretary reached her wits end when questions began to focus on the first family — in particular, with New York Post reporter Caitlin Doornbos.
She asked if Jean-Pierre could definitively say whether the cocaine in question was associated with the Biden family. Also, she raised concerns about the previous day’s evasion of cocaine-related queries by deputy press secretary Andrew Bates, who had invoked the Hatch Act as a reason for his non-response.
“So – a couple of things there,” Jean-Pierre began, looking uncomfortable. “He mentioned the Hatch Act because the question was posed to him in – using Donald Trump. And so he was trying to be very mindful.”
She first said that the administration wasn’t “avoiding the question,” adding that she had “exhaustively” answered questions about the discovery of the drug for days.
“You know, there has been some irresponsible reporting about the family. And so I’ve got to call that out here. And I have been very clear. I was clear two days ago when talking about this over and over again as I was being asked the question,” Jean-Pierre said, growing increasingly angry.
“As you know, and media outlets reported this, the Biden family was not here. They were not here. They were at Camp David. They were not here Friday. They were not here Saturday. They were not here Sunday. They were not even here Monday. They came back on Tuesday. So to ask that question is actually incredibly irresponsible. And I’ll just leave it there,” she added.
Meanwhile, on Monday, House Republicans launched an investigation into the cocaine discovery, urging the head of the U.S. Secret Service to provide Congress with additional details. Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, strongly condemned the illicit finding, labeling it a “shameful” incident.
Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent-turned-conservative media heavyweight, gave his insider perspective on the exploding new Biden White House ‘Cocainegate’ scandal.
WATCH:
In a Rumble video titled “The Cocaine-Gate Inside Scoop,” Bongino gave his account of what he believes happened after the Secret Service announced on Sunday that a “suspicious white powder” found in the White House turned out to be the illegal drug.
“DO NOT TRUST the White House version of events about the cocaine. The Bongino Rule is in full effect,” he prefaced on Twitter.
“Here’s the issue here. There’s going to be a lot of commentary on this from people who have not done security or aren’t even remotely familiar with how security at the White House even works,” he noted in the video.
After noting that the White House sits on an 18-acre site, he explained that there are only two checkpoints where visitors can get in, and they are heavily manned by Secret Service personnel using the best screening technology.
Karine Jean-Pierre calls it “incredibly irresponsible” to ask if the cocaine found at the White House belonged to the Biden Family.
Notice she doesn’t directly answer the question and instead says they weren’t there.pic.twitter.com/vieTsRuNH4
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 7, 2023
“Who could have possibly went through a checkpoint and brought cocaine in?” he asked rhetorically. “The answer is no one. It’s someone who would have bypassed the checkpoints.”
“The Secret Service didn’t have cocaine on ’em, so it had to be one of the protectees. There is no other explanation,” he continued. “They would have never gotten through the checkpoint.”
“They were driven in,” Bongingo added.
The host went on to say that “it’s a simple explanation” before referencing Occam’s razor — meaning the simplest solution is nearly always the correct answer.
“Keep it simple, stupid,” Bongino said. “Sad, but true. That is most likely what happened. It’s the only way it got in there.”
