As more anonymous leaks muddy the waters on where the cocaine was found in the White House, one thing becomes clear: Biden’s handlers are divided on how to handle the scandal that now deserves the moniker “Cocainegate.” It’s panic time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The most intriguing leak went to NBC News, always willing to broadcast propaganda meant to guard the interests of the ruling class. Host Andrea Mitchell and White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell casually let drop a shot across the bow of VP Kamala Harris -- whose unpopularity is a huge problem for Dems worried about maintaining control of the Executive Branch -- implying that the latest version of where the coke was found, in a cubby near an entrance to the West Wing, is also near where the Vice President parks:
NEW: The White House is now claiming the cocaine was found "in a much more secure place ... near the Situation Room" and next to "where, for example, the vice president's vehicle is parked."
There is no sign of any response from the veep, but she was also heard yesterday laughing uncontrollably after referring to her husband as the “first second-gentleman of the United States”:
Given her propensity for such outbursts, one can’t be sure if this is related to nervousness about becoming the fall-gal, or, contrarily, hope that the Biden presidency will become untenable prior to the end of his term in office, January 21, 2025, making her the incumbent, difficult to keep off the ticket due to her melanin.
The fact that multiple mutually incompatible stories about where the cocaine was found are being floated suggests that factions have emerged among the cabal that pulls Biden’s marionette strings, as his dementia deepens. For a quick review of the changing stories prior to the Kamala feint, let’s rely on Bonchie of RedState:
First, we were told that “cocaine hydrochloride” was found “near” the White House. The desired implication obviously was that the cocaine was medicinal (in this case, an anesthetic nasal spray) and that it wasn’t actually found inside the buildings.
Things then shifted dramatically when reports, including from The Washington Post, said that the cocaine was actually found in the White House library. Suddenly, the story wasn’t just about some hazmat situation nearby, but that was hardly the only twist. By Tuesday, things had shifted further, this time with a claim sourced to the Secret Service that the cocaine was found “in a work area of the West Wing.”
That’s quite the progression given how simple it should have been to figure out the truth from the start, and sure enough, there’s a new development. According to the latest reports, the cocaine was found in a “cubby” at the West Executive entrance.
The story is now uncontrollable, with both experienced outsiders weighing in, and insiders anonymously planting stories that reflect their factional interests. Debra Heine of American Greatness collects a few:
An official close to the matter previously told The New York Post that “the cubby is used by both White House employees and visitors to store phones and personal items that are not taken into other parts of the complex.”
While the location of where the cocaine was found is more secure than previously alleged, officials said that area was also heavily trafficked.
Former Secret Service agent Bobby McDonald disagreed with that assessment, telling Fox News Wednesday night that “I don’ think it’s heavily traversed over a holiday weekend.”
“My guess is the Secret Service has a fairly good idea of who may be involved in this situation. They definitely have an idea of who was on the campus that weekend,” said McDonald, who was the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Vice Presidential Division during Joe Biden’s tenure as Vice President.
“I think the Secret Service is going to be utilizing every asset and capability that it has” to find the culprit and will be “working with other agencies that can assist in this investigation,” McDonald said.
The former agent threw cold water on the notion that the stash belonged to Hunter Biden, who admitted to having had a crack cocaine habit in his autobiography.
“Sweeps are conducted all the time in and around the White House as you know to make sure that there’s nothing that’s inappropriate in various locations. So the idea that this may have been in the cubby for several days just doesn’t hold water for me,” McDonald explained.
Another faction or factions continue to hope that they can get away with an unsolved mystery conclusion, as Jordan Boyd writes in The Federalist:
The White House is apparently giving up on finding who is responsible for leaving an illicit drug in the executive mansion last weekend. At least, that’s what Politico reported based on the testimony of an unnamed law enforcement official.
“White House cocaine culprit unlikely to be found: Law enforcement official,” the headline reads.
A snarky subhead noted, “Lines may have been snorted and crossed,” but “it’s possible we won’t know by whom.”
In press briefings where anonymity is impossible, two different stories have been floated by 2 different official spokespeople. Karine Jean-Pierre already dummied up Wednesday on whether the White House supports prosecution of whoever brought in cocaine.
And then Thursday – coincidentally or not, the day Kamala was implicated by an anonymous source speaking to NBC News – deputy press secretary Andrew Bates puzzlingly invoked the Hatch Act “legislation that prohibits federal employees from talking about or using federal resources for campaign purposes” in dodging question of President Trump’s claim that the Biden family is involved:
Meanwhile, the Secret Service, presumably aware that it is being set up as a fall guy by those taking the unsolved mystery approach, is leaking via unnamed sources that it is doing everything possible, including DNA and fingerprint analysis of the bag containing cocaine, to identify the druggie who carried cocaine into the White House and then forgot about it. CNN:
A federal law enforcement official told CNN that additional tests being done on the bag include DNA and fingerprint analysis.
The CSI apporach to forensic evidence could be dispositive since it is highly unlikely that anyone appearing on video surveillance would have been wearing rubber gloves as the stash was left in a cubby (IF that's the real story).
One reason why there may be such panic is that prosecution for the possession of small amounts of cocaine or the crack version of it is a particularly sore point for many Blacks angry that a vastly disproportionate number of African Americans have been prosecuted for such offenses.
Combine drugs with a whodunit and you have a recipe for a tidal wave of media, even when the media wish, for poltical reasons, that the story would go away and leave the Democrats unsullied.
Photo credit: Twitter video screengrab (cropped)