Trump may withdraw choice for drug czar

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday raised the possibility of withdrawing his nomination of Republican Rep. Tom Marino to be the nation’s drug czar following reports that the lawmaker played a key role in passing a bill weakening federal authority to stop companies from distributing opioids.

Trump told reporters at a Rose Garden news conference that he will look at reports by The Washington Post and CBS News “very closely,” adding: “If I think it’s 1 per cent negative to doing what we want to do, I will make a change.”

The Post and CBS’ “60 Minutes” reported Sunday on the 2016 law, which weakened the Drug Enforcement Administration’s authority to stop companies from distributing opioids. Marino, in his fourth term representing northeastern Pennsylvania, played a key role in the law along with a handful of other Republicans.

Democrats called on Trump to withdraw Marino’s nomination.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said confirming Marino as the nation’s drug czar was like “putting the wolf in charge of the henhouse,” adding: “The American people deserve someone totally committed to fighting the opioid crisis, not someone who has laboured on behalf of the drug industry.”

Sen. Joe Manchin, whose home state of West Virginia has been among the hardest-hit by the opioid epidemic, said he was horrified at the accounts of the 2016 law and Marino’s role in it.

Manchin scolded the Obama administration for failing to “sound the alarm on how harmful that bill would be for our efforts to effectively fight the opioid epidemic” that kills an estimated 142 people a day.