Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was caught off guard on Thursday when CNBC host Sara Eisen fact checked his claims about a supposedly dire crisis of fentanyl being imported from Canada.
During the interview, Lutnick said that tariffs on Canada would only be lowered when there was a sustained drop in the number of fentanyl overdose deaths in the United States.
Eisen, however, would not let his claims go unchallenged.
"According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, agents only seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last year," she said. "So is that a metric? Do we want to see that go down to zero? How are you judging when they've done enough?"
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"Well, how funny is that right?" he replied. "Like if I seize less, you know, does that mean, like, the stuff they haven't seized hasn't gone through?"
Eisen then pointed out to Lutnick that Canadians weren't solely to blame for drugs being smuggled into the country.
"A lot of it is Americans smuggling it over," she said. "It's not just Canadians."
Lutnick stammered for a couple of seconds.
"Erm, well, look, crooks and crooks but I've got to stop the flow across our border," he said. "We've got to stop the flow."
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