Editorial: Press secretary cries foul over question about cocaine in the White House. We beg to differ.

We have no idea how the cocaine discovered last week in the house belonging to the American people arrived there; we trust an investigation will find out the truth. After all, there are cameras everywhere.

Until that answer emerges, salacious suspicions are nothing more than that. But two things are worth saying. One is that an illegal drug should never be present in the White House, for all kinds of reasons too obvious to elucidate. And another is that, when an illegal drug has been found there, reporters have a duty to ask probing questions about its origins.

If a Northwestern University football coach is expected to know about hazing on his watch, the president of the United States should be willing to explain the presence of an illegal drug in the people’s house.

So White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was entirely off-base when she attacked a reporter Friday for asking if she would answer, once and for all, whether the substance found “belonged to the Biden family.” That was a question a reporter in a free state was professionally obligated to ask.

The press secretary could have denied that it did, once and for all, or told the assembled press to wait for the investigation. Both would have been legitimate answers. But, no. Instead, she went after the reporter.

“To ask that question is actually incredibly irresponsible,” she said.

On the contrary, we say. Whoever left the cocaine in the White House and for whatever reason they did so, asking that question was the epitome of journalistic responsibility.

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