NewsNation host Chris Cuomo criticized Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday for blaming America for its fentanyl crisis despite her country and government’s role in the epidemic.
Sheinbaum ended up caving on Monday to deploy 10,000 National Guard soldiers to Mexico’s northern border to assist in stemming the flow of fentanyl after threatening retaliation over the weekend to President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff on Mexican imports. Cuomo, on “CUOMO,” argued Sheinbaum’s government is enabling the cartels to continue drug trafficking.
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“We need Mexico to do more. Why? Because fentanyl deaths increase every year because of them. Seventy percent of the 100,000-plus overdoses in America last year were fentanyl. It’s coming from there primarily,” Cuomo said. “And when not killing us with drugs, the cartels are ruining lives with human trafficking. In 2018, they made $500 million. Four years later, they made $13 billion selling people. All of this on top of the obvious ill, right? The Mexican government allowing their country to be a pass-through for their own and every other country.”
“You know who knows all this but doesn’t own it and mocks our concerns? President Claudia Sheinbaum. Mexico is identified by every monitoring outfit as among the most corrupt. She knows this. But the Mexican president says it’s insulting to suggest they tolerate cartels,” he continued. “Well, then what would her suggestion be? She speaks more harshly about the United States than the cartels. She blames us for our drug problem instead of the cartels. Now, look, we all know that if there’s no demand, there’s no supply. But you don’t get to argue that addiction is about demand when you’re flooding us with supply. You don’t get to do that.”
Sheinbaum wrote on X Saturday that the Trump White House’s claim of Mexico’s government being allied with cartels is “slander.” She also alleged that the U.S. government is failing to crack down on drug dealing in its major cities.
Out of 180 countries, Mexico was ranked the 126th most corrupt in 2023, according to Transparency International. Mexican cartels and gangs shot up campaign rallies, burned ballots or blocked the establishment of polling stations during the country’s 2024 elections, according to The Associated Press.
Cuomo also addressed alleged criticism from “woke” viewers of his Monday segment, in which he called Sheinbaum “the Mexican lady.” He backpedaled, but said viewers should be more focused on the fentanyl epidemic than the words he uses.
“Her position as president does warrant being named and titled and I should have done that consistently all the way through. You’re right. But I call you woke. You know why? Because you’re outraged at the wrong thing,” the NewsNation host said on Tuesday. “And instead of being woke, you need to wake up. How about respecting your own country and what’s being done by Mexico, with the knowledge and perhaps complicity of that government, which is led by President Sheinbaum, who denies the reality at the minimum?”
“They get no respect from me. And any who seize on how she is titled and not how she acts — again, trade being woke for waking up to the reality that we’re living,” he continued. “You treat your own leaders worse than the head of a country that is killing your countrymen and creating problems on an epic scale. Think about that.”
Over 21,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the southern border during the last year of former President Joe Biden’s administration, according to Customs and Border Protection data. Estimated overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl totaled over 80,000 in 2022 and 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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