In light of an investigative report from 60 Minutes and the Washington Post Sunday, President Donald Trump’s drug-czar pick has withdrawn his name from consideration to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Trump tweeted the news Tuesday morning.
Your president, who seems to have a biological inability to admit an error, called Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) “a fine man” and “great” when announcing the news of his withdrawal.
The investigation by 60 Minutes and the Post essentially fingered Marino as the man behind legislation that allowed pharmaceutical distributors to flood American communities with millions of opioid pills.
Moreover, a former senior Drug Enforcement Administration agent called out Marino and the bill he co-sponsored as key in making it more difficult for the DEA to fight against these distributors—which, in his mind, led to more American deaths from opioids.
CNN reports that during 2015, there was an average of 91 opioid-related deaths each day.
As reported earlier by The Root, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), whose state had been devastated by the opioid crisis, came out against Marino as drug czar on Monday.
On Tuesday morning, Manchin’s words grew stronger and he declared that Marino would become the Trump administration’s drug czar “over my dead body.”
Trump also announced Monday that he would officially make a national emergency declaration to fight the opioid epidemic next week, something activists and prominent members of the Republican Party, including Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.), had been urging since he took office.
A day later, Trump announced Marino’s withdrawal from consideration.
Read more at the Washington Post.