Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) blasted China on March 2 for “violating” the United States’ “sovereignty every single day when they kill our youth here in America” with fentanyl.
During an on-stage conversation with China expert Gordon Chang at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Hagerty warned about fentanyl pouring into the United States through the southern border through Chinese Communist Party-connected cartels.
Hagerty said that “precursor chemicals now are flowing into Mexico. The CCP are tied to these cartels. They are working together to create this poison they’re shoving across our borders, using these billion-dollar illegal drug cartels that partner in Mexico to do it.
“They are killing American kids.”
Hagerty appeared to imply that the fentanyl issue violates American sovereignty in a similar way to the Chinese spy balloon the United States shot down off the coast of South Carolina last month.
“You think about the violation of our sovereignty everyone was upset about when the CCP balloon floated over America,” he said. “Well, the CCP is violating our sovereignty every single day when they kill our youth here in America.”
“A CCP fingerprint is on every one of those fentanyl pills that comes across,” added Hagerty. “Their fingerprint is on every death certificate that has to be signed for our youth.”
Hagerty noted that the leading cause of death for those between the ages of 18 to 45 is drug overdose.
According to the CDC, the drug behind most of these overdose deaths is fentanyl.
In 2021, the last time the CDC reported there were 71,238 deaths due to fentanyl overdoses, an increase of almost 20.77 percent from 2020, when the number of such deaths was 57,238.
Hagerty has introduced numerous bills to combat the flow of fentanyl.
He introduced legislation to expand Title 42, which was utilized during the Covid-19 pandemic and allows for those who seek asylum in the United States to be immediately expelled by the United States for having a disease, to apply to widescale drug-smuggling.
The Stop Fentanyl Border Crossings Act was blocked numerous times by the Democrats in the last Congress.
Also during the last Congress, Hagerty—along with 13 other GOP senators—introduced a bill that would make it a felony to distribute fentanyl.
“Those responsible for the fatalities caused by distribution of this shockingly lethal drug must be held accountable,” said Hagerty in a Sept. 19 statement.
“This commonsense legislation is a step toward stopping the flow of fentanyl into America and ending the deadly drug crisis wreaking havoc on our country.”