Which arrived first, fentanyl, Trump, or Biden? The Maricopa County Attorney places the blame on Trump’s “open border” policies and expresses optimism about him.
Using the fentanyl issue as justification, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell backed Donald Trump for president on Wednesday when President Joe Biden was in the Valley campaigning for reelection.
During her monthly press conference, Mitchell stated, “I have seen Biden’s own DEA tell us that in 2022 and 2023, over half of the fentanyl seized in the United States was seized in Arizona.”
Mitchell’s assertion is somewhat supported by the year under evaluation from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. More than 40 million fentanyl tablets and more than 380 pounds of fentanyl powder were found in Arizona last year by the federal agency’s Phoenix office.
In 2023, the DEA found around 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder and 77 million fentanyl pills in the United States. Mitchell stated that she backed Trump in part because of the fentanyl issue.
“I don’t agree with Donald Trump on everything,” she stated. “I’m guessing he doesn’t agree with me on everything, but I do agree with the way he handled the border, and I do agree with the way he handled the economy, and therefore, yes, I will be supporting him for president.”
With 78% of the vote, Trump prevailed in the Republican presidential preference primary in Arizona on Tuesday, while Biden won the Democratic primary with nearly 90% of the vote.
Tuesday marked Biden’s arrival in Phoenix, where he spoke at El Portal, a South Phoenix Mexican restaurant, and spent time strengthening his Latino support network. The restaurant is owned by longtime Democrats Mary Rose Wilcox, a former Maricopa County Supervisor, and her husband, Earl.
Speaking on Wednesday at Intel’s Chandler semiconductor plant, Biden highlighted the $8.5 billion grant the tech corporation received from his administration as a component of the White House’s “Investing in America” campaign.
When questioned during her news conference about whether fentanyl entered the country when Trump was president, Mitchell acknowledged that it did. She did, however, assert that she had “never seen such an open border as we have right now.”
“We now have cartel members that are recruiting our young people to smuggle,” she continued.
The increase in fentanyl seizures and fentanyl-related overdoses started during Trump’s administration, according to many sources, including FactCheck.org and CBS News, despite the Republican contention that Biden’s policies are to blame for the jump in cross-border fentanyl sales.
“Data show the Trump administration’s decision to close U.S. ports of entry to nonessential traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 had the consequence of accelerating drug traffickers’ shift to fentanyl, a more potent drug than heroin, which helped lead to an increase in drug overdose deaths,” as per a Forbes analysis in March 2023.
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