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Trump Spends First Half Of Coronavirus Briefing Discussing War On Drugs

President Donald Trump spent nearly an hour speaking about drug cartels and military efforts to rein in smuggling operations on Wednesday as many Americans are desperately worried about the spread of COVID-19, the illness killing thousands of people around the country.

“There’s a growing threat that cartels, criminals and other malign actors will try to exploit the crisis for their own gain,” the president declared from the White House during his daily briefing on the coronavirus. “We must not let the drug cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten American lives.”

Trump, flanked by military officials and the attorney general, said the U.S. would begin new “counter-narcotics operations” using a network of Navy and Coast Guard ships. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited figures that 70,000 Americans die each year due to drugs, a number he called “unacceptable.”

“We came upon some intelligence some time ago that the drug cartels as a result of COVID-19 were going to try to take advantage of the situation and try to infiltrate additional drugs into our country,” Milley said. “We’re at war with COVID-19, we’re at war with terrorists, we’re at war with drug cartels as well.”

The novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc around the nation and has now infected more than 213,000 people as many states urge residents to shelter in place for the foreseeable future. The nationwide death toll has surpassed 4,000, nearly 2,000 of those deaths in New York, an epicenter of the outbreak.

The president did speak about the effects of the coronavirus pandemic during the last half of the briefing, regularly calling...

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