The White House is denying distributing crack pipes to drug users, "but they are funding them," and that enables drug use, Sen. Marsha Blackburn said on Newsmax Monday.
"It's amazing to us that they continue to ignore this issue, and they continue to say they are fighting drugs when indeed they're enabling drugs," the Tennessee Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
The Biden administration is denying a Washington Free Beacon report that "safe smoking kits" being distributed through a $30 million grant program will include pipes that can be used to smoke "any illicit substance," including crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and the Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Dr. Rahul Gupta said in a statement, "No federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits," and White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the controversy was based on "inaccurate" media reporting.
Blackburn, meanwhile, said there is enough fentanyl coming into the United States to kill every American, but the administration is "doing nothing to fight this."
"They don't close the southern border," Blackburn said. "They are going after no cash bail. They're allowing the cartels to operate on U.S. soil, and they will not tell us what they are doing with this money for safe smoking kits."
Her comments come after Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., last week introduced a bipartisan bill. The Preventing Illicit Paraphernalia for Exchange Systems Act, or PIPES Act, in an effort to stop taxpayer funds from being used on pipes used to smoke crack cocaine.
The legislation also would block the use of federal funds "to purchase sterile needles or syringes for the hypodermic injection of any illegal drug'' or ''to procure, supply or distribute pipes, cylindrical objects, or other paraphernalia that can be used to smoke, inhale, or ingest narcotics.''
Rubio has also introduced a similar bill, the CRACK Act. His bill is co-sponsored by 16 Republicans.
Blackburn also commented on the growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and said she's glad to see President Joe Biden is starting to threaten sanctions, but "he is so late to the game on this."
"He should have done it last fall," Blackburn said. "He knew that Putin was going to push in. He is making it after the fact."
Blackburn said she does believe NATO will step up to defend Ukraine, even though it is not a member state, and that the alliance will defend the other countries in the region.
"Everyone is standing against Putin putting the old Soviet Union back together," she said. "That is his goal and you have to realize that affects us."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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