Cocaine being discovered in the White House isn’t the headline the Biden administration wanted out of the Fourth of July celebration, but here we are.
Secret Service agents found traces of the illegal narcotic while President Joe Biden was away at Camp David for a retreat, and later confirmed it was in the West Wing lobby where guests enter before taking tours private
The controversy distracted from much of what Biden wanted to talk about this week around a solid June jobs report. It also didn’t take long to throw the presence of illegal drugs in the White House into the Washington chipper with House Republicans demanding answers.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has built her political career on being one of the fiercest far-right voices in Congress, but she was hit hard when a conservative group ousted her.
The House Freedom Caucus voted to remove Greene, according to Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., which is the first time a member has been expelled from the group.
In the 2024 presidential campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is trailing far behind Donald Trump, and hasn’t done much to catch up since his formal campaign announcement in May. That has many wondering if there is a better alternative to Trump in the GOP field, as other contenders begin to carve out space to distinguish themselves or attack the former president.
And during the Fourth of July celebrations, there was a culture fight between South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and the famous ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s, who asked the return of Mount Rushmore to indigenous populations.
Eat: Cocaine in the White House is ‘shameful’
The discovery that someone brought cocaine into a highly trafficked part of the White House is not something that can be expected to be cleaned up in a few news cycles.
That was found in a West wing lobbywhich serves as a reception room for visitors, is even more concerning as staff are authorized to conduct such tours for people passing through background screenings where they are asked to leave their mobile phones in small boxes .
How serious is this?
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee, is calling for a Secret Service briefing on the matter. He wants answers about safety practices, as well as to determine what mistakes led to the evacuation of the building.
“The presence of illegal drugs in the White House is unacceptable and a shameful moment in the history of the White House,” Comer said.
Others have suggested, without evidence, that Hunter Biden, the president’s son, is to blame given his public struggles with drug addiction in the past. But the administration has dismissed those claims as unfounded, saying the president, first lady and first family were away from the White House over the weekend.
“I’m not going to get into hypotheticals from here,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “Let the Secret Service do their job. It’s under their purview. We’re confident they’ll get to the bottom of it.”
MTG booted from Freedom Caucus
The Republican majority in the House continues to fill itself with both reality shows and important policy debates.
This episode was mostly about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s cozy relationship with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whom she has sided with on a number of key votes since helping him win the top House seat in January.
But Greene’s expulsion from the Freedom Caucus also comes after his public spat with Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, whom he cursed during an exchange on the House floor.
Greene continues to push to impeach Biden and other administration officials, and has not stopped his embrace of conspiracy theories. In recent months, however, he has distanced himself from his caucus colleagues, whom he suggested were indulging in “conservative fantasies.”
DeSantis stayed neutral while Pence and others lashed out at Trump
Ron DeSantis has been announced as Donald Trump’s main challenger in the Republican presidential primary, but the former president remains in a strong lead.
The latest national polls have Trump ahead by about 30% despite a pair of unprecedented criminal indictments, with at least two more looming.
What DeSantis and his allies are banking on is a marathon campaign that will give the Florida governor plenty of time to draw contrasts with Trump, especially in the debates. That is if Trump shows up.
This could also be a time when one of the many other GOP contenders makes the case that they are the best No. 2, such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is improving in some New Hampshire polls.
Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice president, who has been running third in national polls, could also seize the opportunity. A Pence-aligned super PAC is getting more aggressive, releasing a new ad in Iowa calling Trump “an apologist for thugs and dictators” with clips of the former president shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the North’s leader -Korean Kim Jong Un. .
The governor of South Dakota meets with Ben & Jerry’s on Mount Rushmore
Ben & Jerry’s launched a campaign on Independence Day claiming that “stolen indigenous lands” should be returned.
Specifically the Vermont-based ice cream company, which has spoken out in favor of several liberal causes, highlighted Mount Rushmore which he said, “was desecrated and dynamited to honor its colonizers, four white men, two of whom were enslaved people and all hostile to indigenous peoples and values.”
Completed in 1941, Mount Rushmore features the heads of four presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. It was created on a mountain that is considered sacred to the Lakota Sioux, and has long been a source of debate.
That didn’t sit well with Republican Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, who dismissed Ben & Jerry’s for calling her state’s top tourist attraction, which she called “the greatest symbol of our freedom and history of United States”. .”
