President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. | Alex Brandon/AP Trump: 'Looking into' Marino's nomination as drug czar after report on opioid legislation

President Donald Trump said Monday that “we’re going to be looking into” Rep. Tom Marino, the White House’s pick to be the nation’s next drug czar, after CBS' "60 Minutes" and The Washington Post reported that the lawmaker championed a law that hobbled federal efforts to combat the abuse of opioids.

Trump pledged to reverse his nomination of Marino (R-Pa.) to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy if “it's 1 percent negative to doing what we want to do.”


“As far as Tom Marino, so he was a very early supporter of mine, the great state of Pennsylvania. He's a great guy,” Trump said during a Rose Garden news conference Monday afternoon. “I did see the report. We’re going to look into the report. We’re going to take it very seriously because we’re going to have a major announcement probably next week on the drug crisis and on the opioid massive problem, and I want to get that absolutely right… We're going to be looking into Tom.”

According to reporting by the Post and "60 Minutes," Marino was the top lawmaker championing the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, legislation that the news outlets said makes it essentially impossible for the Drug Enforcement Administration to freeze suspicious narcotics shipments from drug companies. The DEA had fought against the bill, while the pharmaceutical industry lobbied hard on its behalf.

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The law hobbled DEA efforts to stop shipments of opioid drugs from distribution companies to corrupt doctors and pharmacies, the news outlets reported. Prescription opioid addiction has spiked in recent years, igniting a resurgence of heroin use as well. Trump has sworn to address the ongoing epidemic of opioid abuse.

“Well, he's a good man. I have not spoken to him but I will speak to him, and I'll make that determination,” Trump said of Marino.

Democratic senators on Monday called for Trump to withdraw Marino's nomination, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer casting the congressmen as thoroughly unfit to oversee the nation's federal anti-drug initiatives.

"Confirming Representative Marino as our nation's drug czar is like putting the wolf in charge of the hen house," Schumer said on the Senate floor. Schumer joined Sens. Joe Manchin and Claire McCaskill in urging Trump to drop his pick for drug czar.

Manchin, in a letter addressed to the president, called the opioid issue “the biggest public health crisis since HIV/AIDS,” and added that "we need someone leading the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy who believes we must protect our people, not the pharmaceutical industry.”

McCaskill, during an appearance on CNN, said she did not support a Marino nomination, and that "most of [her] colleagues agree." The Missouri senator also pressed Trump to support greater funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy to help bolster the government's efforts against opioid addiction.

Cristiano Lima contributed to this report.