A member of the House Oversight Committee, whose panel was briefed Thursday by the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) on its now-closed cocaine investigation at the White House, told Fox News the world must be scratching its collective head at the dumbfounding controversy.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told "Fox News Tonight" Thursday she is troubled by what the breach of security at the White House ould mean down the line.
"[T]his is not the first time that drugs have been found in the White House," she said, appearing to refer to two alleged discoveries of marijuana there last year. "And obviously, it signifies that there's a massive issue with security."
"[W]hat if some nutjob brings in fentanyl – then you have a bigger problem because people are going to die."
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Unlike many other controlled substances, exposure to even a dash of fentanyl can be extremely harmful or fatal.
Luna told "Fox News Tonight" host Piers Morgan the White House does not have drug-sniffing dogs and that policy must be changed.
"But also, I find it very alarming that this investigation was closed-out so quickly. And exactly like [host Piers Morgan] pointed out, they lied to the American people about where the [Biden] family was at," she said.
Morgan had taken issue with the White House's contention the Bidens had been gone from the White House for several days beginning on the Friday before Independence Day, when in reality, the family did not depart until Friday evening.
Luna said the American people have the right to ask questions about such an unprecedented discovery, given White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's recent condemnation of "irresponsible reporting" about the Biden family – as first son Hunter Biden has a history of cocaine use.
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"I feel like on the international stage, when people are looking what's currently happening, it doesn't look good for the country," she said. "You know, they're going to think there's a bunch of cocaine cowboys running the White House, and it's simply not true."
While questioning Luna's fellow Floridian Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Coral Springs, Morgan said that given how the current state of security measures are focused on powder or substances, there would still likely have been a much more fervent investigation.
"If it was anthrax, say, and we would get to the bottom of it very quickly. You can't be comfortable, surely, that someone has taken cocaine into the White House and this whole investigation's over before two weeks have elapsed," Morgan added.
Moskowitz replied it is not acceptable for the Secret Service to have no concrete answer on potential suspects but added that the cubbyhole area described in reports had been installed by then-Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly, for visitors to the West Wing.
He appeared to disagree with the contention Hunter Biden or another family member smuggled in the cocaine.
"It's for passholders and it's for guests to leave their belongings before they go into the West Wing. It is not for people who work there on a regular basis. It's not for anyone related to the family: the Trump family or the Biden family," Moskowitz said.
He added that Luna is correct in critiquing the lack of drug-sniffing dogs at the compound, while adding the U.S. Capitol doesn't appear to have stringent illicit-drug detection either.
House Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland said earlier Thursday that trying to drug test the estimated 500 people who could have left the cocaine would have been a "massively disproportionate and overblown response" by the Secret Service.
Raskin added at the time that it is similarly untenable to try to scan every entrant to the Capitol complex for drugs either.
Moskowitz told Fox News when it comes to the potential for anthrax, ricin or another caustic substance to be smuggled into the White House, the Secret Service provides assurance – albeit through classified means – that there are protocols to intercept such threats.
"They're set up to find anthrax; ricin. They're set up to find explosive devices. They are not set up to find drugs [going] in and out of the White House," he said.
"My question to the Secret Service is, what if someone was testing your protocols to see how this would all work? -- And so they are having meetings with White House personnel... it seemed to be very clear that that changes were coming."
