Trump adviser's CNN interview goes off the rails as he insists on discussing drugs instead
With the trade war simmering between the U.S. and its closest neighbors, CNN anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown wanted to get the inside scoop from guest Peter Navarro on the Trump administration's next moves.
Navarro is currently the administration's senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, and seemed to be the perfect official to ask about the tariffs that will end up hurting American consumers. But Navarro didn't want to talk about trade and manufacturing; he wanted to talk about drugs.
Brown began, "Of course we're all waiting to see what's going to happen with these tariffs. What's going to happen with the call today between Trump and Trudeau? What can we expect to happen from that call? Do you expect a deal to be struck?"
"Well, as the boss says, 'Let's see what happens.' It's really not my place to get ahead of the president on this," Navarro said before heading down the rabbit hole while Brown and Blitzer looked on.
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"What I've done a really deep dive on, and I think your viewers would really benefit from understanding, as the secretary of commerce said today, it's a drug war. And here's the issue. Fentanyl. It's been called a 'slow-moving weapon of mass destruction.' And I think it's the most insidious material that's ever been invented because it's very low cost, it's highly addictive, and extremely potent."
Navarro went on to explain how fentanyl is laced into other illicit drugs to "up the high."
Brown interjected, "Right, but I want to just follow up with you on this —"
"But let me just say the other part which is the buried lede," Navarro continued. "Ambien, Xanax, all these painkillers, Vicodin. These all now are being spiked with fentanyl. The DEA, the Drug Enforcement agency, got 80 million pills —
Brown tried again, "OK, but I have to jump in here because I want to —"
The two then began talking over each other with Brown finally managing to say, "Justin Trudeau, for his part, said, 'This isn't about fentanyl. That's a false pretext. Less than 1% of fentanyl crossing the border comes from Canada.' He said there was a 97% drop, according to the CBP...from December to January, because of what Canada has done to try to crack down on fentanyl."
"Do you want to know what I say to him?" Navarro asked. "I say to him that 12 pounds of fentanyl coming across the borders, which is what they got, is enough to kill 3 million Americans. I would say to Mr. Trudeau that he has allowed Mexican drug cartels to embed themselves across Canada, bring up their little pill presses, and manufacture these fake prescription drugs, which then find their way. So, I think, Mr. Trudeau, it would be really useful if he just toned stuff down."
