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Republicans blamed Joe Biden for the fentanyl crisis when they attacked the president from the floor of the House chamber during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
For at least two points in the speech, Republicans stood up and mocked Biden, demanding that he “secure the border.”
It comes on the same day that the House Oversight and Accountability Committee held a hearing on the southern border crisis, specifically noting the record number of overdoses and deaths due to the unprecedented drug smuggling of fentanyl from Mexico.
Biden turned to honor one of the guests in his box at the annual remarks, the father of a 20-year-old who died of a fentanyl overdose.
President Joe Biden was heckled by Republican lawmakers who claimed he is to blame for the massive spike in fentanyl overdoses and deaths due to his lax border policies.
“It’s your fault,” a lawmaker yelled at the president during his State of the Union address Tuesday night as Biden was honoring a father whose 20-year-old daughter died of a fentanyl overdose.
‘Courtney discovered pills in high school that turned into addiction and eventually death from a fentanyl overdose. She was only 20 years old,” Biden said as the camera panned over to her father Doug hers.
“Her family has turned grief into purpose, working to end stigma and change laws,” the president added. “He told us that he wants to start a journey towards American recovery. Doug, we are with you.
But Republicans would not let Biden get away with his lax border policies that led to the massive increase in drug smuggling into the country, leading to record deaths in the past two years.
“Fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year,” Biden noted.
When the Republicans started chanting ‘secure the border,’ the president nodded and said, ‘You got it.’
As the yelling from the Republican side of the chamber began to die down, one lawmaker clearly yelled, “It’s your fault.”
During at least two points of the speech, Republican lawmakers yelled “secure the border” at the president. Pictured: Georgie’s representative, Marjorie Taylor Greene, dressed all in white, taunted Biden multiple times during the speech.
Several Republican lawmakers throughout the speech voiced their disapproval of the president and his policies.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who sits behind the speaker and next to the vice president, was seen jeering and shrugging, as well as appearing on the board at various points throughout the night.
Two US Border Patrol agents who testified before the Oversight Committee on Tuesday conceded that the amount of fentanyl seized at the southern border so far this year is enough to kill nearly five times the US population. USA
Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin said 700 pounds of fentanyl was seized in his sector alone in 2022, which he said was enough to kill half the population of the United States.
The committee member, Republican Rep. Tim Burchett, explained that staggering amounts of the synthetic opioid caused the overdose deaths of hundreds of citizens in his Tennessee district alone last year.
Burchett cited Department of Homeland Security (DHS) figures showing that 9,400 pounds of fentanyl have been seized in the country so far this year.
“And about 76 percent, or 7,200 pounds of that, was seized as it passed through our southwest border,” he added.
When Modlin and Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Floria Chavez were asked if they knew how many people they could kill, they admitted they didn’t, but admitted they knew it was a high number.
“I’ll do the math for you,” Burchett said. ‘There are 1.6 billion people, with a ‘b’.’
“That’s enough fentanyl to kill all Americans nearly five times over,” he noted.
“And the bottom line is that this country was on its way, I felt, to a secure border under President Trump,” the lawmaker said. ‘But President Biden put an end to that on his first day in office. I think Americans are dying as a result.
Republicans claimed ahead of Biden’s comments that he “will not speak about the crisis at our southern border” during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address.
At an Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday, two border patrol chiefs conceded that enough fentanyl has been seized at the border so far this year to kill five times the population of the United States. Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin (left) said 700 were seized in Tucson Sector alone. He was joined by Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Floria Chavez (right) for the hearing on the southern border crisis.
Figures released for December show that the number of encounters on the southern border continues to rise, reaching a new all-time high in a single month of 251,487.
While Biden touched on the subject, he did not spend too much time on the topic considering the unpopularity between Democrats and Republicans in his handling of the southern border crisis and US immigration in general.
Biden visited the southern border for the first time during his presidency in January of this year. He came as a quick stop on his way to Mexico for meetings at the Three Amigos Summit and was also a follow up to his announcement of new policies to deal with the prevailing crisis.
The president last month announced the continuation of the Trump-era removal policy known as Title 42, which is wildly unpopular with progressives but praised by the Republican Party as the only security measure left to prevent total chaos in the border. He also announced a new program that would require immigrants from certain countries to apply for asylum online before coming to the US.
“We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border – arresting 8,000 human smugglers, seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in the last few months alone. We launched a new border plan last month,” Biden said during his speech Tuesday night.
“The problems of the American border will not be solved until Congress acts,” he said, to which House Speaker Kevin McCarthy could be seen shaking his head in place behind the president.
“If we don’t pass my comprehensive reform, at least approve my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border,” Biden added.
McCarthy scoffed at the second part of the statement.
As Biden spoke of wanting to protect “the rights of all people,” including asylum seekers, a group of Republican lawmakers again chanted “secure the border.”
Instead of ending his comments on the border, Biden went on to address an issue on which he has more favor among Democrats: ensuring abortion rights after the repeal of Roe v. Wade.