Sen. Joni Ernst says 'Chinese are intentionally poisoning America' with fentanyl

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said China is "intentionally poisoning" Americans by supplying Mexican cartels with the materials to make the deadly opiate fentanyl, which is then sold in the United States.

"The Chinese are selling these precursor chemicals into Mexico. Then the Mexican cartels are working on making the fentanyl and distributing it up into the United States," Ernst told CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge in an interview aired Friday.

When Herridge asked whether the flow of chemicals was occurring with approval from the Chinese Communist Party, Ernst responded: "I believe it is. I think that the Chinese are intentionally poisoning America."

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol seized 14,100 pounds of fentanyl at the southern border last fiscal year, according to official agency data. Drug Enforcement Administration head Anne Milgram has said, "Fentanyl is the single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered."

Every nine minutes, someone in the United States dies from fentanyl poisoning and just 2 milligrams of the drug can be fatal, according to the DEA.

Ernst said the United States should work with Mexican officials and educate the American public to fight the fentanyl epidemic. 

"When we see an adversary like China poisoning our communities, it's a very disconcerting thing. We have to educate the American people. We have to work with Mexican counterparts to push back against the cartel and the Chinese. We can't continue to lose youth to this fentanyl epidemic," she said.