A "suspicious powder" that was discovered in a White House common room on Sunday night was found to be cocaine, according to a new report from the Associated Press. Per the publication, the White House executive mansion was briefly evacuated and a security alert was declared after the discovery, which was made while President Joe Biden was away at Camp David. The president and his family left on Friday and returned to Washington, D.C., for Independence Day.
According to two law enforcement officials who agreed to speak with the AP on the condition of anonymity, the white powder was not in any particular West Wing office. It was, however, in an area that is accessible to tour groups. Fire and emergency crews were brought to the Capitol to do a rapid preliminary field test, which reportedly identified the substance as cocaine. As The Washington Post reported, in a brief dispatch with a timestamp of 8:49 p.m. on Sunday — which was logged on a website called openmhz.com — a firefighter with the D.C. department's hazardous materials is recorded as saying, ""We have a yellow bar saying cocaine hydrochloride."
