White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday snapped at a reporter over a question about a bag of cocaine found at the White House.
“Can you just say once and for all whether or not the cocaine belonged to the Biden family?” Caitlin Doornbos, a New York Post reporter, asked Jean-Pierre.
In response, Jean-Pierre said the White House has already answered that question.
“We’re not avoiding the question, that is not true, we’ve answered this question, and we’ve litigated the question for the past two days exhaustively,” the White House press secretary said.
She went on to “call out” the reporter and insisted that the Biden family was not at the White House when the cocaine bag was allegedly found by Secret Service on Sunday near the ground floor entrance to the West Wing.
“You know, there has been some irresponsible reporting about the family, and so I gotta call that out here,” Jean-Pierre said. “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 questions, as you know, and media outlets reported this.
Karine Jean-Pierre's newest answer on the White House cocaine scandal: "There has been some irresponsible reporting about the [Biden] family" pic.twitter.com/cSTxpnbune
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 7, 2023
“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,” she said.
“So to ask that question is actually incredibly irresponsible, and I’ll just leave it there,” Jean-Pierre said.
Since the bag’s discovery, speculation has abounded about President Joe Biden’s adult son, Hunter Biden, who is known to have been a drug addict in the past.
Initially, the zippered bag was said to have been discovered in a cubby where visitors to the West Wing are asked to leave their phones.
“What I wanted to be very clear is that this is a heavily, heavily trafficked, heavily traveled, to be more accurate, area of the campus of the White House,” Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday. “It is where visitors to the West Wing come through.”
On Thursday however, officials said the cocaine bag was found near the West Executive entrance, which is closer to the Situation Room and one floor below the Oval Office. That entrance is also near where the vice president’s vehicle parks.
The entrance reportedly sees VIPs, visitors, tourists, staff members, military officials, and facilities operations employees come through the area.
Officials familiar with the investigation have reportedly indicated that they are not optimistic the person who left the cocaine bag will be found since it was discovered in a highly-trafficked area.
Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany criticized Jean-Pierre’s Wednesday briefing on Fox News, saying she “brought nothing” in terms of answers.
“I would not have walked to that podium without saying, ‘Secret Service, you have to give me something here.’ … She brought no answers. Totally inexcusable,” McEnany said.