Fox Business Network anchor Cheryl Casone on Wednesday blasted the “tasteless” social-media comments from conservatives gleefully linking cocaine found in the White House this week to Hunter Biden.
It’s “not funny” to mock the president’s son for his past addictions, Casone said less than an hour after her Fox colleagues made similar links to the younger Biden on-air.
Appearing as a co-host of the Fox News midday panel show Outnumbered, Casone first noted that the discovery of cocaine in the West Wing is a “serious story,” one that it is “very disconcerting” if the culprit happens to be a Biden administration staffer.
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“But this is very worrisome. Cocaine is a serious drug,” Casone said. “It’s very worrisome that someone could have a problem, whatever the circumstances are. Hopefully, we will get more details later this afternoon, but yes, I want to see the security footage. That’s where I think they will be able to find who this person is and what they were doing and why there was cocaine in the White House.”
At the same time, the Fox Business host took issue with fellow right-wing media stars trying to make the drug find about President Joe Biden’s troubled son, who has become a frequent target among conservative media.
“Of course, social media starts making fun—bringing up Hunter’s name, it’s not funny,” Casone exclaimed. “And I think that there’s a lot of cheap shots taken at Hunter Biden.” She concluded: “He is a recovering addict. Nobody wants to see him regress or slip back into addiction. And I think the comments were tasteless.”
Notably, several of the most prominent individuals who’ve rushed to connect the White House blow to Hunter Biden were Casone’s own Fox colleagues.
On July 4, Fox News contributor and former George W. Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer tweeted that if the coke was discovered in the mansion, “it’s likely Hunter.” Miranda Devine, a Fox News pundit whose main focus lately has been on Hunter Biden’s “Laptop from Hell,” also implied on social media that the presidential scion could be responsible for the drug bag.
And less than an hour before Casone’s denouncement of those invoking Hunter Biden in this situation, Fox News ran a segment doing just that.
“We haven’t heard a denial from Hunter. He has simply said he no longer does crack cocaine. And that he was a former crack cocaine user,” Fox News anchor Julie Banderas said while guest-hosting The Faulkner Focus. “But cocaine in the White House is not something that happens every day.”
Agreeing with Banderas, conservative talk-radio host Jason Rantz added that “I can’t say we’re shocked by the news” before claiming that it isn’t unusual “when you have someone open about past drug use and potentially could indicate current drug use.”
Banderas then suggested law enforcement should fingerprint and drug test Hunter Biden to verify whether or not the cocaine is his.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that authorities discovered the cocaine on Sunday near an area where visitors are instructed to leave their cellphones. “Guests are required to go through security screening before entering the White House complex and then asked to leave their phones in small boxes just before entering the West Wing,” the Post noted. “Officials said the substance was found near these boxes.”
