New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday President Trump’s failure to officially declare the opioid crisis a national emergency was “not good,” according to a report.
“I think the problem is too big to say that if he had declared an emergency two months ago that it would make a significant difference in two months,” Christie said, per the Associated Press. “But I would also say you can’t get those two months back. And so it’s not good that it hasn’t been done yet.”
The two-term Republican governor chairs Trump’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, which was established in March via an executive order to specifically tackle drug overdoses that the body estimates claims about 142 Americans every day.
When asked about the delay, Christie said he had been told by the White House that there were “legal” issues involved with making such a declaration since it was not a natural disaster and had no firm end date.
Christie, however, added that the inaction had “lessened” the commission’s work as one of the key recommendations it made in a July draft report was to name the problem a national emergency.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to say opioid commission claims that about 142 Americans die due to drug overdoses, not just from the opioid epidemic.
