‘Can’t Answer a Cocaine Question?’ Kayleigh McEnany Blasts ‘Single Worst Answer’ She ‘Ever Heard’ a WH Press Secretary Give

Fox News host and former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Friday slammed current White House Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates for his deflection of a question about cocaine found at the White House, calling it the “worst” answer she’s ever heard from someone in that position.

The cocaine found at the White House has caused a flurry of questions for the Biden administration, including one specifically about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden that was directed to Bates this week.

When Donald Trump’s social media posts about the cocaine were brought up and Bates was asked whether he would “be willing to say” the cocaine didn’t belong to either of them, Bates invoked the Hatch Act rather than answer that directly.

On Friday’s Fox & Friends, McEnany, who herself faced regular harsh criticism over answers to reporters, ridiculed that response as the worst she’s ever seen from a press secretary.

Fox’s Griff Jenkins and Brian Kilmeade discussed the location of the discovered cocaine, and emphasized the lack of access for everyday tourists like “Aunt Betty,” and McEnany explained where it is in a little more detail for the viewers.

McEnany then defended the Secret Service against accusations mostly from the far right that agents were “covering” for the president or his son.

She also noted that there were no cameras in the area, which MSNBC’s Willie Geist got wrong on Friday morning.

Finally, she turned to Bates’s answer on the Hatch Act.

“Just final point: Andrew Bates saying ‘I can’t answer a cocaine question because of the Hatch Act?'” she said. “That is the single worst answer I have ever heard a press secretary give. Wow! Go back to 101.”

Bates slammed McEnany’s criticism in a response to Mediaite:

“If that’s the considered opinion of someone who promised ‘we will not see diseases like the coronavirus come’ to the United States, who even Fox News cut away from for claiming the 2020 election was stolen, I suppose I’ll just need to find the strength to carry on,” he said.

In his full remarks after being asked, Bates roasted the Trump administration and suggested frustration over the success of Bidenomics is behind Trump’s cocaine rants.

KILMEADE: So Griff is that, that’s a place they’re saying you have to be pretty much a credentialed — you have a reason to be there. There’s no tourists going through that area. Is that safe to say?

JENKINS: Visitors! Yes. That’s very fair to say. In fact, Kayleigh can even weigh in on this. Even as the press, as a card-carrying press badge person, I don’t go over there. This is the executive West Wing entrance, again, where you see the Vice President, secretaries come and go. And when they first come in, assuming they’re there for that immediate, you know, Situation Room secure briefing, this is the cubbyhole they would put their devices into. So this would not be a place where, you know, Aunt Betty from Omaha would come to see the White House for the first time and drop her phone.

KILMEADE: Because we were blaming Aunt Betty for a while but now we can’t. Griff, thank you very much.

MCENANY: So let me illuminate this for folks. So, you walk into the West exec entrance there, and I talked to a number of former colleagues of mine last night to just clarify the layout, get my memory up to par. There’s two sets of double doors. There are cubbies that tourists would walk by. These cubbies are not utilized by White House staff. They are utilized by tourists. These are the ones when you walk inside West exec.

JENKINS: If a staff member is giving a tour to a friend.

MCENANY: Exactly. They’re like little mailboxes, they’re pretty ornate. They do have a lock on them. So that’s the entrance of West Executive. You get to the Secret Service officer who’s sitting there and then, to Griff’s point, you keep going, you get to the White House mess. It’s a pretty short walk. You turn. You get to the Situation Room, and that is where staff would set down their phones. You’d set it down before you go into this secure location.

KILMEADE: Or your coke.

MCENANY: There are no cameras. No cameras, I was told, in the West Wing. So they’re having to rely on cameras outside of the West Wing. But interesting, one point that was emphasized to me over and over again is the Secret Service. No one is covering for the White House. So any sinister allegations out there that the Secret Service is covering for the White House? Absolutely not. These are the best of the best. Just final point. Andrew Bates saying I can’t answer a cocaine question because of the Hatch Act?

DOOCY: It’s ridiculous.

MCENANY: That is the single worst answer I have ever heard a press secretary give. Wow! Go back to 101.

The Biden White House has previously had troubles with the Hatch Act and may be extra vigilant when it comes to 2024 adjacent topics like social media posts from Donald Trump.

Watch the clip above, via Fox News.

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