Speaking on Fox News with host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night, Candace Owens mocked President Biden, saying, “All you have to do it to be healthy in Joe Biden’s America is stay at home, lock your doors, avoid sunlight, mask your children.”
Carlson was speaking of the report in The Washington Free Beacon that the Biden administration allegedly wants to implement a $30 million grant program that would fund programs giving crack pipes to drug addicts as he prompted Owens, saying, “I guess they can tell you they love you, but if they’re encouraging you to smoke more crack, maybe they’re lying.”
“Well, I think it is pretty obvious the Biden Administration loves black America and loves America and cares about the health and well-being,” Owens responded sarcastically. “All you have to do it to be healthy in Joe Biden’s America is stay at home, lock your doors, avoid sunlight, mask your children. When you step outside, let it only be to get five vaccines and maybe do a smash and grab crime and then on your way back home, grab a government-sponsored crack pipe.”
“I don’t know why people think that Joe Biden doesn’t care about the lives of the average Americans and black Americans; it’s so clear by the way he is running things that he actually cares,” she said, mocking Biden. “You know, it’s ridiculous that this is going on; it’s sad to hear him explain how easy it is to get drugs, because we all know this is going on and they’re pretending that it’s not. They are actually mocking us for saying we are being dramatic in discussing how horrible the lives have gotten for the average Americans, especially those living in inner cities, as you touched on a couple weeks ago.”
“And [White House Press Secretary] Jen Psaki saying, oh, it is not happening, it’s just a Fox News conspiracy theory, anybody that’s telling you we don’t care about your health, they’re just conspiracy theorists, we are going to fact-check them and deplatform them,” she noted. “The bigger thing here is Joe Biden is not the mastermind of this plan. Joe Biden is not even a mind in this plan. He has no idea what is going on, someone points a direction and he goes, right?”
Following multiple reports on the grant and amid widespread backlash, including from members of Congress, Health and Human Services (HHS) addressed the controversy on Wednesday. HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) director Rahul Gupta said in a press release that “no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits.”
“HHS and ONDCP are focused on using our resources smartly to reduce harm and save lives. Accordingly, no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits,” the statement reads.
“The goal of harm reduction is to save lives,” it continues. “The Administration is focused on a comprehensive strategy to stop the spread of drugs and curb addiction, including prioritizing the use of proven harm reduction strategies like providing naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and clean syringes, as well as taking decisive actions to go after violent criminals who are trafficking illicit drugs like fentanyl across our borders and into our communities. We will continue working to address the addiction and overdose epidemic and ensure that our resources are used in the smartest and most efficient manner.”
This story has been updated to include a statement from HHS and ONDCP saying that “no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits.”