Week in politics: Cocaine found in White House prompts investigation

Cocaine being discovered in the White House isn't the headline the Biden administration wanted coming out of the July 4 celebration − but here we are.

Secret Service agents found traces of the illegal narcotic while President Joe Biden was away at Camp David for a retreat, and later confirmed it was in the West Wing lobby where guests enter before taking private tours.

The controversy distracted from much of what Biden wanted to talk about this week around a sturdy June jobs report. It also didn't take long for the presence of illegal drugs in the White House to be thrown into the Washington wood-chipper with House Republicans demanding answers.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has built her political career on being one of the fiercest far-right voices in Congress, but she was knocked down a peg or two when a conservative group kicked her out.

The House Freedom Caucus voted to remove Greene, according to Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., which marks the first time a member has been ousted from the group.

On the 2024 presidential campaign trail, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis remains far behind Donald Trump, and hasn't done much to catch up since his formal campaign announcement in May. That is making many wonder if there is a better Trump alternative in the GOP field, as other contenders begin to carve out space to distinguish themselves from or attack the former president.

And during the July Fourth celebrations there was a cultural war tussle between South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and the famous ice cream company Ben & Jerry's, which called for the return of Mount Rushmore to Indigenous populations.

Comer: Cocaine in the White House 'shameful'

The discovery that someone brought cocaine into a highly trafficked part of the White House isn't something that you can expect to wash away in a few news cycles.

That it was found in a West Wing lobby, which serves as a reception room for visitors, is even more troubling given staff are authorized to give those tours for people who go through background screenings where they are asked to leave their cellphones in small boxes.

How serious it this?

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee, is requesting a Secret Service briefing on the matter. He wants answers about the security practices as well as determining what failures led to an evacuation of the building.

"The presence of illegal drugs in the White House is unacceptable and a shameful moment in the White House’s history," Comer said.

Others have suggested — without evidence — that Hunter Biden, the president's son, is the culprit given his public struggles with drug addiction in the past. But the administration has stiff-armed those unfounded claims saying the president, the first lady and the first family were away from the White House over the weekend.

"I'm just not going to get into hypotheticals from here," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "Let the Secret Service do their job. It's under their purview. We have confidence that they'll get to the bottom of it."

MTG booted from Freedom Caucus

The House GOP majority continues to be filled with as much reality TV drama as important policy debates.

This episode was mainly about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's cozy relationship with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who she has sided with on a series of key votes since helping him win the House's top spot back in January.

But Greene's ouster from the Freedom Caucus also comes after her public spat with fellow Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, of Colorado, who she cursed at during an exchange on the House floor.

Greene continues to push for impeaching Biden and other administration officials, and hasn't stopped her embrace of conspiracy theories. In the past few months, however, she has grown estranged from her caucus colleagues, who she suggested engage in "conservative fantasies."

DeSantis stuck in neutral as Pence and others pounce Trump

Ron DeSantis has been advertised as Donald Trump's chief rival in the Republican presidential primary, but the former president remains in a healthy lead.

The latest national polls have Trump ahead by roughly 30% despite a pair of unprecedented criminal indictments, with at least two more looming.

What DeSantis and his allies are gambling on is a marathon campaign that will give the Florida governor plenty of time to draw contrasts with Trump, particularly in the debates. That's if Trump shows up.

This could also be a moment where one of the many other GOP hopefuls argues they're the better No. 2, such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is doing better better in some New Hampshire polls.

Mike Pence, Trump's former vice president, who has finished third in national polls, could also seize the opportunity. A super PAC aligned with Pence is getting more aggressive, and has launched a new ad in Iowa saying Trump is "an apologist for thugs and dictators" featuring clips of the former president shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

South Dakota governor spars with Ben & Jerry’s over Mount Rushmore

Ben & Jerry's launched a campaign on Independence Day asserting that "stolen Indigenous land" should be returned.

Specifically the Vermont-based ice cream company, which has spoken out in favor of a number of liberal causes, singled out Mount Rushmore which it said, "was desecrated and dynamited to honor their colonizers, four white men − two of whom enslaved people and all of whom were hostile to Indigenous people and values."

Completed in 1941, Mount Rushmore features the heads of four presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. It was created on a mountain that is considered sacred to the Lakota Sioux, and has long been a source of debate.

That didn't sit well with Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, of South Dakota, who dismissed Ben & Jerry's for calling out her state's chief tourist attraction, which she called, "the greatest symbol of our freedom and history of the United States of America."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Week in politics: Cocaine discovered in the White House causes stir