LAS VEGAS — First lady Melania Trump is challenging journalists to cover the opioid crisis as often as they publish “idle gossip and trivial stories.”
She made the request while speaking in Las Vegas Tuesday at an event with conservative commentator Eric Bolling, whose 19-year-old son died from an overdose in 2017.
“I’d also like to take a moment to challenge the media to cover this very real issue as often as possible. In 2017, we lost at least 72,000 Americans to overdoses — that’s 197 lost American lives per day, more than 8 lost lives per hour,” she said. “I challenge the press to devote as much time to the lives lost and the potential lives that could be saved by dedicating the same amount of coverage that you do to idle gossip or trivial stories.”
[Related: Kellyanne Conway stresses destigmatizing opioid addiction]
Trump appeared to take a jab at the constant “breaking news” alerts about her husband’s administration.
“When we see breaking news on TV or the front pages of newspapers, it is my hope that it can be about how many lives we were able to save through education and honest dialogue. We all have a real opportunity to help this country save lives, and I know these are the real issues that people care about,” she said.
This is the second event in which Trump has teamed up with Bolling; the pair addressed the opioid crisis at Virginia’s Liberty University in November. And it’s not the first time she’s dismissed coverage of the White House. Late last year, she told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that she would prefer the media focus on “substance” over “nonsense.”
“[The press] likes to focus on the gossip, and I would like them to focus on the substance and what we do, not just about nonsense,” Trump said.
Trump traveled to Nevada as part of a three-state swing Monday and Tuesday to advance her Be Best platform, which centers on promoting the well-being of children, fighting opioid abuse, and encouraging positivity on social media. On Monday, she visited a school in Tulsa, Okla., to speak with students about being kind to one another. Later in the day, Microsoft executives in Redmond, Wash., showed Trump how parents can better monitor their children’s online habits.
