Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an October 2020 NPR article titled: ``Opioid Crisis: Critics Say Trump Fumbled Response To Another Deadly Pandemic.'' The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Strong). Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from New Mexico? There was no objection. [From NPR, Oct. 29, 2020] Opioid Crisis: Critics Say Trump Fumbled Response to Another Deadly Epidemic (By Brian Mann) When then-presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke in Manchester, N.H., a week before the 2016 election, he said the opioid crisis was destroying lives and shattering families. ``We are going to stop the inflow of drugs into New Hampshire and into our country 100%,'' Trump promised. It was a major campaign issue. Overdoses were surging in battleground states key to the election, like New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 2017--Trump's first year in office--more than 42,000 Americans died from overdoses linked to heroin, fentanyl and prescription opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before coronavirus hit, opioids were widely viewed as the nation's top public health crisis. Trump declared a public health emergency in October 2017, noting that overdoses had joined gun violence and car crashes as a leading cause of death in America. ``No part of our society, not young or old, rich or poor, urban or rule has been spared this plague,'' he said. Significant accomplishments followed.…”