When President Trump delivers his major address on the opioids crisis Thursday he will be joined by a special guest: Sen. Joe Manchin.
The West Virginia Democrat’s state has been one of the hardest hit by opioids — prescription painkillers and heroin — in the nation. Manchin, who is up for re-election in 2018, has been willing to engage Trump on a variety of issues, making it no surprise that he was invited by the White House to join Trump for the speech.
The president is expected to declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency, something he promised to do more than two months ago.
“I intend to be there,” Manchin told the Washington Examiner, adding that an emergency declaration is “extremely important to getting assistance on the ground level.”
West Virginia had the highest rate of deaths due to a drug overdose in 2015 — 41.5 per 100,000 — according to the latest available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Manchin is one of ten Democratic senators up for re-election next year in states Trump carried. The president won West Virginia by 42 points.
