Kayleigh McEnany fact-checks Karine Jean-Pierre's claim that fentanyl is at 'historic lows'
Fox News
“Outnumbered” co-host Kayleigh McEnany responds after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed “fentanyl at the border” has dropped to historic lows.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY: We have a White House, an entire branch of government, the executive branch, who has not even managed to diagnose the problem. You can’t get to a solution until you say, here’s the problem. Karine Jean-Pierre, I have a fact check for you here. Here are seizures on fentanyl … CBP jumped from about 4,800 pounds in 2020 to 14,700 pounds seized. As Bill Melugin points out, seizures indicate that there’s more fentanyl coming across the border. Also indicative of that is U.S. overdose deaths that have increased 800% in the last four years because of fentanyl use. Overdose deaths, 70,000 just last year. … They haven’t identified the problem. Now, Senator Lindsey Graham, he puts forward one solution. It’s the authorization of use of military force. …I would note that these cartels are non-state actors. So you’re getting into Mexico and their sovereignty here. It’s a little dicey. Senator Ted Cruz has said, I don’t agree with Lindsey Graham’s approach in full. And [Rep.] Mike Waltz said we can do something short of U.S. military, let’s go into Mexico. And that could be drones, military technology, something that’s kind of a hybrid.
Jean-Pierre was blasted on Tuesday for downplaying chaos at the Mexican border, even as the nation reels from four Americans being kidnapped in Mexico, claiming that fentanyl is currently at "historic lows-historic levels" under Biden’s presidency.
"Possible misspeak? In no way is fentanyl at ‘historic lows’. Seizures and ODs have hit record highs," Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin tweeted.