‘Don’t even try it’: Gov. Glenn Youngkin takes reporter to the

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Virginia has reportedly seen a drop in the number of opioid overdose deaths as Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently announced a statewide fentanyl awareness campaign.

The Republican governor knows his numbers and a recent clip of an encounter with a reporter on fentanyl findings showed he won’t back down in setting the record straight.

“Don’t even try it,” Youngkin can be heard in the clip posted by WTVR responding to a reporter evidently confronting him about data on overdose deaths due to opioids.

(Video Credit: WTVR CBS 6)

Insisting that “2021 is the peak” of the numbers the reporter was arguing about, Youngkin took the phone from his hand to go over the information in more detail.

“Are you a mathematician?” the governor asked.

“I’m…are you?” the reporter shot back, to which the governor replied, “Yes! It’s the short answer.”

Youngkin proceeded to go over the data with the reporter who was asking about the decrease in 2022 and 2023. Pointing out that the numbers point to overdose rates, Youngkin then told the reporter he would arrange an “in-depth, statistical discussion” with the Secretary of Public Safety to determine responsibility for overdose deaths in the Commonwealth.

“But at the end of the day, we know where the fentanyl comes from, we understand that it comes from China and Mexico and comes across our border,” he said. “It either goes to California and is flown into Richmond [VA], or it comes up through our highway system.”

“We interdict a lot of it. The fact that the federal government has not closed our border and continues to allow illegal fentanyl to come across this border is a travesty,” Youngkin continued. “And anybody who tried to suggest differently is trying to make a political excuse for a failed administration Washington, Full stop.”

Deaths related to synthetic opioids, including deaths caused by fentanyl, decreased from over 2,000 in 2021 to under 1,800 in 2023, according to recent Virginia Department of Health data.

Last week, Youngkin announced the launch of the “It Only Takes One” fentanyl awareness campaign.

“What we hear over and over again from students when we tell them that this little gram of fentanyl, two grams of it can kill you, they look at us and say, ‘We didn’t know. We never heard this,’” Youngkin said. “So we fully believe at the top of the list is we must educate everyone on the risks of fentanyl.”

“It only takes one bad decision to buy a pill that you think is Percocet from someone you don’t know to end a life and to change a family forever,” he said.

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.