President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning tweeted his nominee for drug czar, Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., withdrew himself from consideration for the post, according to a report from The Washington Post.
The move comes on the heels of an investigative report published Sunday by the Post and "60 Minutes" that highlighted Mr. Marino's role in the passage of April 2016 legislation, which effectively eliminated the Drug Enforcement Administration's ability to halt suspicious shipments of opioids from drug distributors into communities racked by opioid overdose deaths.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, W.Va., on Monday called for the withdrawal of Mr. Marino's nomination to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"I applaud the President for recognizing that we need real leadership at the ONCDP and recognizing that Tom Marino was not it," said Mr. Manchin Tuesday. "We need a drug czar who has seen these devastating effects and who is passionate about ending this opioid epidemic. I look forward to working with President Trump to find a drug czar that will serve West Virginians and our entire country … I am eager to make this wrong right and work with my colleagues and the President to repeal this horrible law that should have never passed in the first place."
To read the investigative report from The Washington Post, click here.
To watch the "60 Minutes" investigation, click here.
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