The Senate confirmed journalist Sara Carter to oversee federal drug policy by a 52-48 vote Tuesday.
A former Fox News contributor who has reported on drug trafficking, Carter will lead the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy as President Donald Trump’s top drug policy adviser. In his second term, Trump has used the fight against illicit drug trafficking to depose Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, and to threaten other countries in the region with military action.
Trump touted Carter’s coverage of the illegal drug trade when he tapped her for the job last March.
“My work in the frontlines wasn’t just about telling stories, it was about mapping the enemy,” Carter told senators in the Judiciary Committee during her September nomination hearing. She touted her work covering drug cartels and said Trump’s border crackdown reduced the flow of drugs like fentanyl into the United States. That crackdown also reduced the flow of U.S. weapons into Mexico, she argued, which often end up in cartels’ possession.
“I have seen these predatory criminal empires operate with impunity in our hemisphere. That impunity ends now,” Carter told senators. “This is not just a public health crisis, it’s a chemical war being waged against the American people.”
As head of ONDCP, Carter will play a crucial role in overseeing federal policy and funding related to drug trafficking, substance use prevention, treatment and recovery.
But some Democrats don’t think she’s the right person for the role.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, pointed to Carter’s lack of government, public health or law enforcement experience, which he said makes her unqualified for ONDCP’s top job.
Carter said that while she isn’t “a doctor, a general or a lawyer,” she is a “more than two-decade investigative journalist who was on the ground in the field, witnessing firsthand what these cartels and what these terrorist organizations have not only done to our nation and to the rest of the world, but to our children.”
While her Senate testimony largely focused on stopping the supply of drugs by aggressive action against foreign drug cartels, Carter also pointed to reducing domestic demand for drugs “through robust prevention, treatment and recovery support.” She said educators, faith and community leaders and law enforcement need to work together to prevent drug use by creating a “culture of resilience, where staying drug-free is the norm.”
The Judiciary Committee advanced Carter’s nomination on a 12-10 party-line vote in October.
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