On a phone call to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, President Donald Trump said he won the primary election in New Hampshire because the state is a “drug-infested den,” according to released transcripts from The Washington Post.
Needless to say, that didn’t go down well with everyone. Senator and former Governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire responded to the remark on Twitter Thursday, shortly after the Post released the transcripts.
“@realDonaldTrump owes NH an apology & then should follow through on his promise to Granite Staters to help end this crisis,” she said in a series of two tweets. “It’s absolutely unacceptable for the President to be talking about NH in this way – a gross misrepresentation of NH & the epidemic.”
.@RealDonaldTrump owes NH an apology & then should follow through on his promise to Granite Staters to help end this crisis 1/2
— Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (@SenatorShaheen) August 3, 2017
It’s absolutely unacceptable for the President to be talking about NH in this way – a gross misrepresentation of NH & the epidemic 2/2
— Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (@SenatorShaheen) August 3, 2017
“We have a massive drug problem where kids are becoming addicted to drugs because the drugs are being sold for less money than candy,” the president continued during the call, which happened in January. “I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den.”
According to The Concord Monitor, New Hampshire had the third-highest drug deaths per capita in 2016.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) also voiced anger on Twitter, calling Trump’s comments “disgusting.” She added that “Instead of insulting people in the throes of addiction, @POTUS needs to work across party lines to actually stem the tide of this crisis,” and pointed out that the president has “proposed policies that would severely set back our efforts to combat this devastating epidemic.” Trump’s proposed budget would cut funding for addiction treatment and prevention.
.@realDonaldTrump's comments about New Hampshire are disgusting. As he knows, NH and states across America have a substance misuse crisis 1/
— Sen. Maggie Hassan (@SenatorHassan) August 3, 2017
To date, @POTUS has proposed policies that would severely set back our efforts to combat this devastating epidemic 2/
— Sen. Maggie Hassan (@SenatorHassan) August 3, 2017
Instead of insulting people in the throes of addiction, @POTUS needs to work across party lines to actually stem the tide of this crisis 3/3
— Sen. Maggie Hassan (@SenatorHassan) August 3, 2017
In the phone called with Nieto, Trump also asked the Mexican president to stop saying his government would not pay for a border wall, and threatened to cut off remittance payments if Nieto didn’t reverse his public rhetoric on the border wall.
In total, the Post obtained 52 pages of transcripts of calls Trump held with Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. They were presumably leaked by someone close to the president, as White House staffers produced the transcript. Similar documents are commonly circulated to White House staff and senior policymakers, according to the Post.