Chris Christie says drug import plan could sink Donald Trump

In a Thursday Op-Ed, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Florida Republicans should think twice before allowing prescription drug imports in the Sunshine State.

If they don’t, Christie says, President Donald Trump could see his chances at a second term slip away.

“On Nov. 3, 2020, President Trump will be reelected to a second term. That is unless Republicans serving in Congress and in state houses throughout the country mess it up for him by capitulating to the Bernie Sanders agenda,” he wrote.

To the one-time presidential candidate, messing it up means approving legislation that would “pull America toward socialism” by allowing imported prescription drugs to be sold in U.S. pharmacies.

Christie singled out Florida, saying “if the Democrats win Florida, it’s over, and Donald J. Trump will go down in history as a one-term president.”

“Republicans in the state most important to President Trump’s reelection are on the verge of handing Bernie Sanders’s socialist ideas a win they could never have achieved on their own,” Christie wrote. “Florida Republicans are getting ready to approve the same drug importation scheme that Bernie Sanders has been pushing in the U.S. Senate since 2017.”

HB 19 and SB 1528 aim to help Florida consumers by bringing in lower-priced Canadian drugs into the state. The proposal, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, has already cleared the House and is ready for a floor vote in the Senate.

The plan has faced attacks from several groups, including the Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM), which has been running print, radio and TV ads across the state blasting the bills. PSM claims importation would open the door to counterfeit — and possibly dangerous — drugs flooding into the state.

Christie said the same before making a final plea to DeSantis and majority Republican Legislature.

“Gov. DeSantis and Florida Republicans would do well to take a page out of President Trump’s playbook. You don’t beat the Democrats by joining them; you beat them by exposing them. Expose this drug importation scheme for what it is — the next step in the socialist agenda advocated by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.”