Cocaine discovery at White House prompts media jokes: Need a 'blow by blow' account of what happened
The discovery of cocaine at the White House amused anchors on MSNBC, CNN and CBS.
Members of the press were left laughing after a report that the white powdery substance found at the White House tested positive as cocaine on Wednesday.
"I would like to know, blow-by-blow, who was responsible for this," CNN’s Sara Sidner joked as she cracked herself up.
"Too soon," anchor John Berman shot back.
"There’s no ‘too soon’ about this," co-anchor Kate Bolduan responded in laughter. "No one was injured, as far as we know, and it’s an illicit drug at the White House. Why can’t you actually have a little bit of fun with it?"
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Tony Dokoupil, Andrea Mitchell and Sara Sidner joke about cocaine being found in the White House.
Berman then joked, "I don’t believe in fun."
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell was floored that she never encountered anything like this while covering the White House during her lengthy carer.
"This is so unusual. You and I have covered the White House for years. I can’t even fathom anything like this having been found before in the West Wing. And I go back to the 70s at the White House! So this is pretty, pretty wild," Mitchell said, smiling.
The substance was initially found in the West Wing of the White House by a member of the Secret Service, which sparked an evacuation of the building and emergency response. A test was then conducted on the substance, which came back positive for cocaine, a spokesman for the Secret Service told Fox News on Wednesday.
Many have joked that the cocaine belonged to the president’s son, Hunter Biden. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
"CBS Mornings" covered the story before the test results were made public.
Co-anchor Tony Dokoupil mocked the fact that the substance was "believed to be" cocaine, and that the talking point that the area where it was found is regularly visited by guests and tourists.
"How long does it take to find out?" Also, they’re kind of blaming it on the tourists in the public area," Dokoupil said.
Co-host Gayle King then asked, "Are people careless with their cocaine?"
Dokoupil said "it’s an expensive drug" as the panelists chuckled.
"I would like to hear from one person in particular," co-host Nate Burleson said before pausing, prompting King to ask "who?"
"That bill that used to sit on Capitol Hill for ‘Schoolhouse Rock,’" Burleson said. "Put this in layman’s terms, what happened? Because I’m a little confused."
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Cocaine was found in an area of the West Wing that is used by both guests and staff. (Marcus Brandt/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Dokoupil then joked, "He was already rolled up in the cartoon, he was ready to go," referring to the rolled-up dollar bills used by cocaine users.
President Biden was at Camp David at the time of the discovery of the substance. The president's son, Hunter, who is a recovered crack cocaine addict, was also at Camp David at the time of discovery. Many online zingers suggested Hunter Biden is responsible.
"Blaming Hunter is too easy," Fox News host Greg Gutfeld tweeted. "It's too on the nose. Or in the nose."
The cocaine was found in an area of the West Wing that is used by both guests and staff. An anonymous law enforcement official told Politico on Wednesday that the culprit was unlikely to be discovered.
Fox News’ Patrick Hauf and Mark Meredith contributed to this report.
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