The not-so-secure White House
Well, we have two choices – either the Secret Service is lying and knows who brought the cocaine into the White House, or they are utterly incompetent at their job. I don’t see any other possibility as an explanation for this:
The Secret Service has concluded its investigation into the small bag of cocaine found at the White House and has been unable to identify a suspect, according to a statement from the US Secret Service.
Secret Service officials combed through “security systems” and indexed “several hundreds individuals” who entered the West Wing in the days preceding the discovery and were unable to identify a suspect, according to the USSS statement. The Secret Service said FBI lab results from the packaging found “insufficient DNA” and could not retrieve any fingerprints.
“Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals,” a statement from the USSS said.
Investigators were also unable to identify the particular moment or day when the baggie was left inside the West Wing cubby near the lower level entrance where it was discovered.
For a while, we couldn’t even get a straight story on where in the White House the cocaine was found.
I vote for “they know but aren’t telling,” but complete incompetence wouldn’t surprise me, either. Is there a government institution left in which we can have faith? I think the answer is “no.”
They’re lying.
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You’ll recall the incident in 2012 when a posse of Secret Service agents when to Colombia to do advance work for a useless visit by BO. On their off time, they order up a mess of hookers and then stiff them. Nearly all the male SS personnel were implicated in this. The agency has had a damaged institutional culture for some time.
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Note, a great deal of the work the SS does is because of the continual public relations ballyhoo which follows certain federal officials around. If the president were to stay in Washington working and his PR staff were to quit broadcasting his movements in advance, you wouldn’t need so much manpower devoted to ‘dignitary protection’.
I vote for lying as well. We all know who the most obvious suspect is, but even if it’s not him, it is someone important enough to merit silence.
When the baggie was initially discovered, investigators came on the scene in hazmat suits. In the event, the substance was just Hunter’s favorite party drug.
Nothing to see here folks – move along now.
They’re perfectly competent.
They’re just not telling us for our own good.
IOW they’re—with all due care and concern for their country—following the Dr. Deborah model for administrative transparency…
I’m old enough to recall Abscam. One of the greedy little Congresscritters that got taped suffing wads of cash in every pocket of his too-tight doubleknit suit said something to the effect of “Look, I’m not a crook, I’m just stupid. So, re-elect me.”
Meanwhile, the “President” is exuding his usual confidence.
https://nypost.com/2023/07/13/biden-says-finnish-reporter-may-not-be-able-to-go-home/
And “VPOTUS” is sounding more and more presidential (Joe Biden being the template.)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12294035/Kamala-Harris-says-artificial-intelligence-kind-fancy-thing.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12288687/Kamala-Harris-solves-transportation-crisis.html
Would they have been able to figure this out if it was anthrax or some other biological agent or would that have also been a mystery for all time.
And … Not Once But Thrice: Drugs Discovered Three Times at Biden’s White House Since 2022, Boebert Reveals After Secret Service Briefing
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/drugs-discovered-three-times-bidens-white-house-since/
our enemies are looking at this, and taking notes, despite the opera buffe of delta house, called j6 (which apparently aren’t that much in the coverage of the epps matter, after crying insurrection for 2 1/2 years
I’m old enough to recall Abscam.
I’m old enough to remember Sandy Berger’s theft of classified documents (covering internal assessments of Clinton’s administration) from the National Archives by stuffing them in his socks and trousers. After paying a nominal fine in addition to the usual probation + community service, Sandy Burglar was eventually disbarred when it was found that some of the documents he pilfered were originals, and not copies as he had originally claimed. Too bad he wasn’t around (he died in 2015) to discreetly remove Hunter’s baggie from the WH.
Art Deco, thanks for the reminder about the Colombia episode.
I vote for “they’re lying.”
Is Donald Trump actually safe with these people protecting him? Or is stopping shootings the only service they do well?
Both. Like the news media. Dishonest to the core and grossly incompetent even when they try.
The correct answer is “AND”.
Now we learn another banned substance has been found. Ole Joe better hope that the SS is better at protecting him than finding whose dope it was. Future Prez too.
Many who know have said the suspects can’t be but a few people, and all of then Bidens
I conjectured at first that it was possible that the cocaine was planted there by people who wanted Biden out of the running in 2024.
I suppose that may still be a possibility, but given the plain-as-day lying and closing of the “investigation”, the probability of that possibility is rapidly diminishing / vanishing.
I guess at times, things actually are what they look like (assuming eyes are open).
Former federal agents say this is a coverup.
https://nypost.com/2023/07/13/former-federal-investigators-cry-foul-on-wh-cocaine-this-is-a-coverup/
mr magoo could have told you it was a coverup,
So could I, miguel, but they don’t listen to me. 🙂
I’m reminded of the old Robert Ringer quote describing certain dishonest business people:
_____________________________
I didn’t mean to cut off your hands, but you gave me no choice when you reached for your chips.
_____________________________
They didn’t mean to lie to us, but we gave them no choice when we insisted on an answer.
From the Biden standpoint they really didn’t have a choice without risking their whole world of schemes and corruption unraveling.
Not that it justifies it, of course.
And I do believe they are paying a price, though far from what they deserve.
Now that the Secret Service has just announced to the whole world that they are totally incompetent, if a Republican President were to be elected, it would seem that such demonstrable incompetence can be used as the justification for disestablishing the Secret Service, and rebuilding it from the ground up.
To be honest…I had “pin it on Kamala” on my betting slip.
So “lying” was never in doubt.
“What would happen to Hunter, if the cocaine were found out to be his?” is the only question that needs to be asked. And a simple drug test would provide insights into that answer. Did he take one? Did he volunteer? Didn’t I read that a violation of his plea arrangements would have exposed him to prosecution on a firearms violation?
@Griffin, if this were an anthrax scare, the FBI would already have announced a suspect, whether they were guilty of anything or not.
@ Kate > “Is Donald Trump actually safe with these people protecting him?”
Several things make this current story interesting to me:
(1) Some of the people who guarded Biden in the past were willing to reveal how obnoxious he was (the Clintons were also not favorites with the troops).
(2) Trump kept his own security guards after inauguration, although I’m not sure for how long; I think he has private security now in addition to his SS detail but couldn’t find a reference.
(3) Trump’s SS detail liked him, at least according to a left-leaning writer.
(4) Biden replaced the head of the SS and the members of his detail shortly after taking office; not unusual, but it means there is a “loyalty” factor in the cocaine caper cover-up.
(5) Trump’s situation now has “competing” SS groups in action.
I’m really seeing the makings of a great political movie plot here.
References:
BIDEN (1) from 2014
https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/female-secret-service-agents-find-joe-biden-s-skinny-dipping-habit-offensive-114080200706_1.html
(4) https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/24/biden-secret-service-kimberly-cheatle-00053638
“President Joe Biden has appointed Kimberly Cheatle to be the next director of the Secret Service. … Biden “came to trust her judgment and counsel” when she was on his security detail as vice president, he said in his statement. In 2021, Biden awarded her a Presidential Rank Award,”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/30/politics/joe-biden-secret-service/index.html
“The US Secret Service has been planning to bring back to the White House a group of agents that previously worked with President-elect Joe Biden when he was vice president to fill out his security detail, a law enforcement source confirmed to CNN….
The staffing changes, first reported by The Washington Post, also come amid concern from Biden allies about the political loyalty of some current agents to Trump, two people familiar with the situation told the newspaper….
A former Secret Service executive told the Post the staffing changes were a “smart” decision in order to “give the incoming president the comfort of the familiar.”…“You want him to be with people he knows and trusts, and who also know how he operates,” the person said.”
TRUMP (2) https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/07/politics/secret-service-director-trump/index.html
US Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy wants to set the record straight about President-elect Donald Trump’s private security team and whether it’s causing conflict with his agents….he wanted to push back against suggestions that there were conflicts between the Secret Service and the private security team that’s protected Trump for years….“There is no friction at all” with Trump’s private team, insisted Clancy, who said his agency has “sole responsibility” for protecting the President and the first family. He added that there is no overlap between the private team and his agency….He explained that while Trump’s private team is there to ensure public events run smoothly and there are no disruptions from the crowd, Secret Service agents are the only ones protecting the President-elect.”
(3) https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-secret-service-detail-cheered-capitol-riot-author-2022-6?op=1
(Caveat: that was written by Carol Leonnig, whose veracity is questioned in this post, which gives more context on her reporting about SS activities under Obama, Trump, and Biden; it’s an account of deliberate bias in leftist reporting)
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/may/24/the-real-story-of-trumps-secret-service/
(5) https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/donald-trump-secret-service-former-presidents-1.6808177
“The legal woes of Donald Trump have cast a new light on the role of those federal agents assigned to protect him and other former presidents for the rest of their lives: the U.S. Secret Service.
There they were, accompanying the 45th president as he made his way into a Manhattan courthouse earlier this month to be fingerprinted and arraigned on 34 felony counts.
Meanwhile, current and former officers assigned to Trump are part of another investigation of the former president, reportedly having to testify at a Washington, D.C., grand jury as part of the investigation into classified documents seized at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
All this, along with other potential cases, including his involvement with the Jan. 6 riots, and accusations of 2020 election interference in Georgia, at least raise the possibility that Trump could be convicted, and perhaps, incarcerated.
CBC News looks at the role of the U.S. Secret Service in protecting former presidents, the challenges of Trump, and whether they would accompany him if he were sent to prison….
Trump, says Miller, has been an outlier in the history of the Secret Service because not only is he a former president, but a current candidate for president. (Presidential candidates are also afforded protection).”
Includes a history of presidential protection protocols.
Ronald Kessler broke both the Colombia and the skinny dipping stories. At 79, he’s probably not that active now, and his sources have probably dried up with all the personnel changes in the Secret Service.