Speaker 1: Okay. The Reawaken America tour continues all across the country. This is
this sort of right wing conspiracy, Christian type event. It's a weird mix of different
constituencies, but very often people like former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn will
speak at the event. Sometimes Eric Trump will speak at the event. And we're going to look at
a couple of clips just to show you kind of the disconnect from reality, but also the kind of
level of danger that is implicit in some of these things. We're going to start first with Eric
Trump. Eric Trump is not known to be the smartest of the Trump kids, but here he seems determined
to prove he's the least smart, saying the real pandemic in the United States isn't COVID. The
real pandemic is fentanyl. Take a listen to this. Speaker 2: So she's supposed to be in charge
of the southern border. You have more fentanyl coming across. By the way, the real pandemic in
this country is fentanyl. Let's be very clear about that. The real pandemic in this country
is fentanyl. It's not COVID. It's fentanyl. Speaker 1: Now, fentanyl is a problem. And
we'll talk about it's a synthetic opioid. We'll talk about fentanyl in a moment.
But this is absurd for a couple of reasons. First, you hear people cheering. Why would people cheer?
Well, do they really care about fentanyl? No. They care about fentanyl in that it's an
opportunity to say the real issue isn't COVID any opportunity to say that they love. And number two,
because they associate fentanyl with the southern border, it's another opportunity to
attack Joe Biden for what they wrongly believe has drastically changed on the southern border since
Donald Trump left and Joe Biden came in. But let's talk about using the term pandemic for fentanyl.
Drug overdoses aren't contagious in the literal sense. Now, sure, there are trends of drug usage.
There is groupthink, there is peer pressure. I get that drugs go in and out of style. But
COVID is literally contagious. Fentanyl is not, so to say, the real pandemic isn't the contagious
communicable disease. It's drug overdoses is absurd. If a person on fentanyl sneezes near you,
they might give you COVID. If they also have it, they're not going to give you fentanyl overdose.
Now, in terms of numbers, if we look at deaths by cause in the United States in 2021,
you see that last year, 450,000 Americans died of COVID and 71,000 Americans died of
fentanyl. So it's about one fifth the number now. It's a major issue for sure.
I'm not diminishing the crisis around fentanyl. We have to understand that not only is it a small
fraction of the death relative to COVID, that we also need to consider the legal status of drugs
in making that number as high as it is. Well, what do I mean? Part of the issue,
many fentanyl overdoses and overdose deaths are people who aren't even trying to consume
fentanyl. They're accidentally taking it because of how people obtain drugs in the United States,
because of the criminalization of drugs. Right. The war on drugs has a big role to play. Sometimes
fentanyl is added to cocaine. Sometimes fentanyl is used in pressed pills meant to look like
oxy or other opiates. Sometimes it's put in all sorts of different drugs that people are
getting. So you could dramatically reduce fentanyl deaths by treating drug addiction
as a public health matter rather than a criminal matter, which the American right is very unwilling
to do. So on four or five different levels just off the wall. Bonkers, here is Eric Trump.
Here is one just like a bonus clip. This is kind of funny and sad. I guess a trump one
flag started to be unveiled in the background and eric trump says it's the greatest flag.
Better even than the american flag, i guess. Speaker 2: I love the Carolinas. You guys are
the greats. And honestly, when I came here and I saw it raise their flag again over there,
that's the greatest flag. Speaker 1:
Wow. Trump won. It says. Speaker 5: Is there a single person
in this room that thought that Joe Biden won the last election?
And neither do I, guys. Neither do I. And our country is in absolute mess right now. I mean,
it is because we dedicated our life to this mission. And believe me, we're the last family in
the world that needed to get the politics right. Speaker 1: We have so much money. The last place
I ever really needed to be was here with people like you. In fact, most of my life, I've been
spent. I've spent trying to stay away from people like you. But we did it by choice. We did it by
choice. Delusional. And the crowd. Cheers. Let's look at one more clip from this event.