Trump, Christie pledge to fight nation’s opioid addiction crisis
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is vowing to step up efforts to combat the nation’s opioid addiction crisis, and he’s tapped New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to lead the fight.
Mr. Trump convened an emotional roundtable Wednesday with Mr. Christie, members of his Cabinet, law enforcement chiefs, recovering addicts and advocates. It was the first public event tied to the launch of a new addiction commission that Mr. Christie, a longtime Trump friend and formal rival, will chair.
Mr. Trump listened intently as Vanessa Vitolo and AJ Solomon, two recovering addicts from New Jersey, described their harrowing battles with substance abuse. Both became hooked on prescription pain killers, and quickly transitioned to heroin.
Mr. Trump also heard from a mother whose son died from an overdose after a long battle with addition. Her son, Mr. Trump told the mother, hadn’t died in vain.
“We want to help those who have become so badly addicted. Drug abuse has become a crippling problem throughout the United States,” said Mr. Trump, citing statistics that show drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the country. “This is a total epidemic and I think it’s probably, almost un-talked about compared to the severity that we’re witnessing.”
Mr. Christie has made the issue of addiction a centerpiece of his administration and spoke extensively about it during his own presidential bid.
Mr. Trump promised during his campaign to stop drugs from “pouring” into the country, and said the new group would work with local officials, law enforcement, medical professionals and addicts to improve treatment options, prevent people from getting hooked in the first place and stop the flow of drugs across the border.
The commission was rolled out as part of a new office led by Mr. Trump’s sonin-law and top adviser Jared Kushner.
As Mr. Christie was appearing at the White House, two former aides were sentenced for their roles in the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal. Bill Baroni was sentenced to two years in prison, while codefendant Bridget Kelly was sentenced to 18 months.
Several of Mr. Christie’s former aides now work in the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, it was a busy time for the administration.
The pledge to combat opioid addiction came as the White House on Wednesday was inching toward another try at a health care overhaul package — and Trump administration officials signaled that they want a more methodical process this time.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price dodged repeated attempts by Democrats to flush out the administration’s next move on the Obama-era health insurance law.
Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump is taking on a more formal White House role, a move intended to quell ethics concerns. She will take the title of special adviser to the president.
She now joins her husband, Mr. Kushner, as an unpaid adviser to Mr. Trump. Mr. Kushner also has taken steps to allay ethics concerns, but lawmakers and government ethics experts still criticized talks with a Chinese company seeking a stake in a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by the family of Mr. Kushner. The negotiations have ended.
In other family matters, first lady Melania Trump made a rare public appearance to help present courage awards to 13 women from around the world.
Within the president’s Cabinet, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Wednesday that geographic and physical challenges will make it difficult to build the wall that Mr. Trump has promised on the U.S.-Mexico border.
And Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was under pressure for promoting “The LEGO Batman Movie,” a movie he produced.
Also, federal ethics filings showed that Mr. Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, Scott Gottlieb, plans to recuse himself for a year from agency decisions involving more than 20 companies that he has had some kind of financial relationship with.
In the meantime, the Government Accountability Office is reviewing the costs and security precautions associated with Mr. Trump’s stays at Mar-a-Lago after a request from leading Democrats on Capitol Hill.
Also on Capitol Hill, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee — Richard Burr of North Carolina and Mark Warner of Virginia, respectively — said they would steer clear of politics in their panel’s probe of Russian interference in last year’s election. They put themselves at arm’s length from the House probe marked by partisanship and disputes.
In nearby Maryland, the U.S. Census Bureau said that it mistakenly proposed counting LGBTQ Americans and has since “corrected” the proposal to remove that category. Gay rights groups quickly declared that it was another sign that Mr. Trump was reneging on a campaign promise to protect them.
Elsewhere, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii decided Wednesday to extend his order blocking Mr. Trump’s travel ban. Hawaii says the policy discriminates against Muslims and hurts the state’s touristdependent economy. The government says the ban falls within the president’s power to protect national security.
And environmental groups that vowed to fight Mr. Trump’s efforts to roll back his predecessor’s plans to curb global warming teamed up with the Northern Cheyenne American Indian tribe to ask a federal court to block an order that lifts restrictions on coal sales from federal lands.
At the same time, Seattle is suing Mr. Trump over his executive order cracking down on “sanctuary cities” for their approach to people living in the U.S. illegally.