The Secret Service has put on high alert after a suspicious substance that was found on Sunday in the White House has been confirmed as cocaine.
According to multiple reports, the substance was found in the West Wing of the White House. When it was found, an emergency response and evacuation was immediately put into place.
In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, the U.S. Secret Service said:
“On Sunday evening, the White House complex went into a precautionary closure as officers from the Secret Service Uniformed Division investigated an unknown item found inside a work area.
“The DC Fire Department was called to evaluate and quickly determined the item to be non-hazardous. The item was sent for further evaluation, and an investigation into the cause and manner of how it entered the White House is pending.”
Once the package was discovered, a hazmat team was called to check out the area. Units for the Secret Service blocked off the roads that surround the White House as a precautionary measure.
Emergency medical services and fire department personnel conducted a field test on the substance on Sunday night. When the test was done, it resulted in a yellow bar appearing on the test strip “meaning cocaine, hydrochloride,” according to USA Today, which heard a recording of the dispatch calls.
When the substance was discovered at the White House, President Joe Biden and his family were not there. They had all left for Camp David on Friday night, and they didn’t return to the complex until Tuesday.
While the identification of the substance itself apparently isn’t in question, how it got into the White House certainly is. The initial response from many people was that a visitor must have somehow brought it in.
But, that theory was quickly shot down.
Members of the public who go on tours of the White House typically will only visit the residence and the East Wing. The tours are usually not allowed to go into the West Wing at all.
That’s the area of the White House where senior administration officials, the vice president and the president all have their offices.
In the wake of the discovery and the announcement that the substance was cocaine, many Republicans have called for further investigation into the matter.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, for instance, took to Twitter to voice her concerns. She posted a clip of White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaking about the incident, and added:
“Don’t worry @PressSec, we Oversight Republicans are going to ask Secret Service about cocaine found in the WH. I’d also like to know if WH staff and admin, as well as Hunter Biden, can all pass a drug test. And what list of meds or drugs is Joe taking?”
Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas posted a full letter that he sent to Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, will adding:
“Congress and the American people deserve to know how cocaine got into the White House.”
