The White House is one of the most secure and surveilled facilities in America but apparently, the Secret Service may be unable to determine who left a baggie of cocaine in the West Wing. Being unable to determine who was responsible was an insane proposition that left CNN This Morning unfazed Friday as co-anchor Poppy Harlow and White House correspondent Priscilla Alvarez primed their viewers to not expect someone to be held accountable.
In what would be a major red flag for anyone that’s not a political operative for the Democratic Party, the CNN talking heads admitted – and were uncritical of – the investigation getting a close date before key tests (DNA and fingerprint analysis) were returned to the so-called “investigators”:
HARLOW: New overnight, we're told the Secret Service’s investigation into how that bag of cocaine wound up in the West Wing of the White House. That investigation should wrap up early next week. Investigators have been reviewing security camera footage and waiting for the results of DNA and fingerprint analysis of the bag.
Priscilla Alvarez joins us at the White House. Good morning to you. I was interested in this headline because Jeremy Diamond's reporting and your team's reporting is it’s going to end next week but yet they don't have a lot of the information, right, from the DNA test, et cetera.
ALVEREZ: That's right, Poppy. And this is on track to end whether or not a suspect is identified. So, as of yesterday afternoon, Secret Service was still looking through security footage and visitor logs, and they still had not received the results of the DNA test as well as the fingerprint analysis. So, all that have is still underway.
Alverez carried water for the dubious investigation by arguing that the baggie was left in “a highly traveled part of the White House.” “This is on the ground floor of the West Wing. It was near the entrance in cubbies. So, this is a cubby that visitors use when they’re going on staff-led tours, as well as ones staff can use if they have to leave their cell phones behind to go into an area to review classified materials,” she noted.
“Highly traveled” was going a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. It may be a relatively busy part of the West Wing but there was still a finite amount of people that had access to it. It’s not like the Capitol which gets thousands of visitors every day.
She did admit that “tours happened over the weekend” and were “led by staff. So, there is at least a time frame that they can look at…”
But the duo still wanted to temper the expectations of viewers to expect the perpetrator to get off scot-free, and of course, they immediately pivoted to news they felt would help President Biden in 2024:
HARLOW: So, just to be clear, it might end without answers, right?
ALVEREZ: That's right.
HARLOW: Okay. In other news, President Biden is set to make an announcement about lowering healthcare costs for Americans.
“In other news,” indeed…
CNN’s indifference to finding out who left cocaine in a Democratic White House was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Liberty Mutual and Trivago. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN This Morning
July 7, 2023
6:12:16 a.m. EasternPOPPY HARLOW: New overnight, we're told the Secret Service’s investigation into how that bag of cocaine wound up in the West Wing of the White House. That investigation should wrap up early next week. Investigators have been reviewing security camera footage and waiting for the results of DNA and fingerprint analysis of the bag.
Priscilla Alvarez joins us at the White House. Good morning to you. I was interested in this headline because Jeremy Diamond's reporting and your teams reporting is it’s going to end next week but yet they don't have a lot of the information, right, from the DNA test, et cetera.
PRISCILLA ALVEREZ: That's right, Poppy. And this is on track to end whether or not a suspect is identified. So, as of yesterday afternoon, Secret Service was still looking through security footage and visitor logs, and they still had not received the results of the DNA test as well as the fingerprint analysis. So, all that have is still underway.
But what makes this very challenging is that where this baggie of cocaine is found is a highly traveled part of the White House. This is on the ground floor of the West Wing. It was near the entrance in cubbies. So, this is a cubby that visitors use when they’re going on staff-led tours, as well as ones staff can use if they have to leave their cell phones behind to go into an area to review classified materials.
Now, these tours happened over the weekend. Those are led by staff. So, there is at least a time frame that they can look at and, of course, this was also a finding that led to a temporary evacuation on Sunday evening. But the investigation is still underway, as we know. And the time line could be fluid, but as of now it is still very much on track to end early next week. And all that we have heard up till this point is that it may be very difficult to identify who brought this in and then how it got in to begin with. Poppy.
HARLOW: So, just to be clear, it might end without answers, right?
ALVEREZ: That's right.
HARLOW: Okay. In other news, President Biden is set to make an announcement about lowering healthcare costs for Americans.
(…)
