Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said on Friday that she believes China is intentionally “poisoning America” through the fentanyl trade, with China being one of the world’s top exporters of the deadly drug.
Ernst said that she traveled to the border with a congressional delegation recently to try to better understand the national security threats that the country faces thanks to Biden’s border crisis, which has allowed for the poison to more freely enter the US.
“The Chinese are selling these precursor chemicals into Mexico. Then the Mexican cartels are working on making the fentanyl and distributing up into the United States,” Ernst told CBS on Friday.
On the fentanyl crisis, Sen. Joni Ernst tells @CBS_Herridge that “the Chinese are selling these precursor chemicals into Mexico. Then, the Mexican cartels are working on making the fentanyl and distributing up into the U.S.” pic.twitter.com/spDlWB9Mn3
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 11, 2023
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) says that China is the primary source of fentanyl being imported into the US. It is the number one killer of Americans ages 18-45.
“I think that the Chinese are intentionally poisoning America,” Ernst continued. “And of course, the Chinese don’t want to assist us with this.”
“When we see an adversary like China poisoning our communities, it’s very disconcerting. So we have to educate the American people,” Ernst said. “We have to work with our Mexican counterparts to push back against the cartel and the Chinese. We can’t continue to lose our youth to this fentanyl epidemic. It is extremely important that we push back.”
A report by the Chinese government rejected accusations that it is supplying the drug trade and instead blamed the very Americans that they are poisoning.
“The fight against drugs requires, first and foremost, one’s own efforts. At the same time, it also needs cooperation among all countries. The United States should stop making unwarranted accusations against China and undermining China-U.S. counter-narcotics cooperation,” wrote the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Even less should it mislead the public and shift its responsibility for ineffective response to drug abuse at home onto others.”
