On Sunday, a small bag of cocaine was discovered near a lobby in the White House West Wing, prompting a brief evacuation. Rep. James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, has sent a letter to U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle requesting more information about the incident and a staff-level briefing. The discovery of the cocaine has raised questions about the security of the White House and the effectiveness of the Secret Service, prompting a congressional investigation into the security practices at the White House.
Posts tagged as “the West Wing”
The White House was briefly evacuated on Sunday evening after the Secret Service discovered suspicious powder in a common area of the West Wing. Preliminary tests showed the substance was cocaine, found in a storage facility used by White House staff and guests. The Secret Service is currently investigating the incident and has not released any further information.
The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a "white, powdery substance" found in the West Wing of the White House, which led to a brief evacuation of the complex. The substance tested positive for cocaine on a field test, and the Secret Service has determined it to be "non-hazardous". The investigation is ongoing, and the White House has not commented on the incident.
President Joe Biden is set to appoint Julie Chavez Rodriguez, a senior West Wing official and longtime Democratic Party activist, as his 2024 re-election campaign manager. Chavez Rodriguez currently serves as a senior adviser and assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and has a long history of involvement in Democratic politics. The decision to appoint Chavez Rodriguez is expected to be formally announced in the coming weeks.
President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the US is increasingly confident that the three objects that were downed in recent weeks were Chinese surveillance balloons, and that the US was able to protect sensitive sites against collection. The intelligence community is still assessing what the additional objects shot down were, but they are believed to be much smaller than the initial Chinese balloon. Biden also spoke from an auditorium across an alley from the West Wing in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Austin Majors, a former child actor best known for his role on "NYPD Blue," has died in Los Angeles at the age of 33. The cause of death is pending further investigation. Majors was honored with a Young Artist Award in 2009 for his work on the show and is survived by his parents, two sisters, and a brother. His family has asked for privacy during this difficult time.
President Joe Biden is set to appoint Jeff Zients, his former COVID-19 policy czar, as his next White House chief of staff. Zients brings a wealth of experience to the role, having served in high-ranking roles in the Obama administration. If confirmed, he will become the fourth chief of staff of the Biden administration and is expected to take the job shortly after the president's State of the Union address.
Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff, is expected to depart the Biden administration in the coming weeks. His departure is the first of a series of staffing moves to come, and it is not yet clear who will replace him. Klain has been a key figure in Biden’s inner circle since the president took office, helping to manage the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and shepherd Biden’s legislative agenda through Congress.