Revolving Door Rogers’ Rough Week: Rogers “Led the Charge in Congress for Increased Access to Opioids” and “Refuses to Stand Up for Workers”

LANSING — It’s been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for Mike Rogers as Michiganders and union leaders across the state “blast” Rogers for selling out Michigan to enrich himself. 

Here are the facts — Rogers is an ally to Big Pharma, “not a friend of the working class,” an anti-abortion extremist, and is leaning into election conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, Hugh Hewitt thinks Rogers “is running for Senate in Florida.” Guess that shouldn’t come as a major surprise, given he bought a million-dollar mansion there. 

Here’s the latest on Revolving Door Rogers’ rough week:

• Warren City Council President Angela Rogensues called out Rogers for his ties to Big Pharma, pointing out he “took money from these companies, pushed legislation and increased their profits, while spurring a crisis that we still battle today.”

• Derrick Jackson, who worked as “a social worker assisting families ‘whose young people were torn apart because of addiction,’” spoke out against Rogers’ opioids record after reading the Bridge Michigan story that “literally got [him] angry.”

• *crickets* It’s been over two weeks since Bridge Michigan’s bombshell report on Rogers’ toxic opioids record came out. Yet, Rogers still refuses to answer for his “decade of advocacy” to “boost opioid prescriptions.” Michiganders deserve to hear from Rogers about his work “contribut[ing] to the crisis.”

• “Not a friend of the working class.” Michigan union leaders sounded the alarm on Rogers who “sold out our state to enrich himself, leaving the people who built Michigan behind.”

• Round and round we go (through the revolving door). Mike Rogers’ net worth increased by 2,000% by doing “business with corrupt foreign governments,” including companies that “stole trade secrets from American corporations.”

• Just one extreme anti-abortion Republican… Bridge Michigan reported that Mike Rogers’ abortion claims “conflict” with his record. Here are the facts: Rogers “supported a national abortion ban,” “co-sponsored legislation to define human life as beginning at conception,” and twice “co-sponsored legislation to withdraw federal approval of the abortion-inducing medication Mifepristone.”

• …hanging out with his extreme anti-abortion Republican bestie. Rogers campaigned with anti-abortion extremist Tom Cotton today. Rogers both co-sponsored the 2013 personhood bill that “sought to ban and criminalize abortions across the country” and “define human life as beginning at conception.”

• If you can’t beat ‘em, spread election conspiracy theories? Rogers refuses to address if he’s “concerned that claims of a stolen election will repeat this cycle,” instead saying “we are going to make this too big to rig.” Yikes. 

• Even Republicans are confused where Mike Rogers actually lives. According to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, “Rogers is running for Senate in Florida.” Guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that Rogers abandoned Michigan nearly a decade ago and bought a million-dollar mansion in Cape Coral.

See for yourself: 

Bridge Michigan: Michigan Dems blast Mike Rogers over opioid stance in Congress

• Democrats blasted Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers Thursday in the wake of a Bridge Michigan investigation of his role in increasing access to prescription opioids and accepting political contributions from opioid manufacturers while in Congress in the 2000s.
• “Rogers led the charge in Congress for increased access to opioids, and the bills he wrote did not provide additional protections for over prescribing,” Warren City Council President Angela Rogensues, said at a Detroit press conference organized by the state Democratic Party.
• “He took money from these companies, pushed legislation and increased their profits, while spurring a crisis that we still battle today.”
• Clarkston resident Tim Pryor said what separates the opioid crisis from the rest of the drug war is “it’s not offshore cartels” that sparked the epidemic, but “companies here in America operating within the law. Those pharmaceutical companies … needed to find allies in the United States Congress. And evidently, they found one in Congressman Mike Rogers. That was disappointing to me.”
• What distinguished Rogers from others in Congress was his close ties to pain associations that were later discovered to be bankrolled by the drug companies trying to increase sales of products like Oxycontin. 
• In Rogers’ recent responses to Bridge’s investigation, the former congressman declined to say whether Congress played a role in the crisis, putting the onus only on doctors and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
• That answer was disappointing to Derrick Jackson, director of community engagement for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department, who spoke at Thursday’s press conference.
• “For me, this is personal. It’s not politics,” said Jackson, who said his wife is in recovery from opioid addiction. “When I read that he (Rogers) refused to take any responsibility, then I was like, ‘I have to be here to actually say something.’ I think about what an elected leader does. We all make mistakes, and so for me, I would anticipate someone would recognize their mistakes. They would learn from it. They would make sure future policy is better.”

MIRS: Dems Spotlight Rogers’ Opioid Support

• Michigan Democrats are targeting Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Mike ROGERS for receiving political contributions from the affiliates of opioid manufacturers when he served in Congress more than a decade ago. Today, they hosted a press conference with local officials detailing their own experiences with opioid addiction. 
• In late August, Bridge Michigan reported that, as a U.S. representative, Rogers introduced a 2003 proposal that called for the country to better recognize “pain as a significant public health problem,” as it sought to remove barriers to drugs treating chronic pain, among other things.
• Meanwhile, Rogers received $226,000 in political donations from the affiliates of companies now paying multiple states as part of a historical settlement dealing with opioid addiction, including major pharmaceutical businesses Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corporation. 
• In the 2023 calendar alone, Michigan received $2.64 million in settlement dollars from opioid drug manufacturers and distributors, and is aligned to receive nearly $1.6 billion total over an 18-year period. 
• One of the speakers at today’s event was Derrick JACKSON, the director of community engagement for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s office. He has served in the role for 15 years, but prior to that, he was a social worker assisting families “whose young people were torn apart because of addiction.” 
• He remembers a 14-year-old athlete he came across, who was prescribed pain medication following an injury. 
• “Before long, (he) was addicted, and not long after that, (he) was addicted to heroin,” Jackson said. “I remember as an officer, being the person that had to tell that mother that their son had (overdosed and died), and would never come home again. I will never forget what it feels like to sit in that living room, and hear their mother screaming.” 
• It was in November 2015, nearly nine years ago, that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan Nasal Spray to be used for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdoses. But before such tools became accessible, Jackson said law enforcement officers would “have to just sit and wait” when encountering overdoses, watching the person slip away on the bathroom floor while waiting for medical experts to arrive. 
• “I know what it’s like to love someone who is in an active addiction, who’s in long-term recovery,” he said. “My wife being someone who has been fighting the battle of an opiate addiction. So, for me, this is personal. It’s not politics. It means something to me from a young social worker to a police officer to someone who fell in love with someone in recovery.” 
• He said when he read the Bridge Michigan story, it “literally got me angry.” 
• During today’s Democratic press conference, speakers included Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli SAVIT, Warren City Council President Angela ROGENSUES and Tim PRYOR, a Clarkston homeowner of 28 years who voted Republican until President Barack OBAMA’s administration. 
• Rogensues talked about having multiple cousins either currently in addiction or recovery, with one family member who was told that because of her usage, Narcan would not be effective if she overdosed again. 
• Pryor talked about his friend from his corporate marketing job. They have been close friends for about 25 years, often talking about their kids’ extracurricular activities, professional football games and new places to try eating lunch at. When he found out his son died from an overdose, related to the street acquisition of an opioid, Pryor described a “surreal moment” unfolding. 
• “I think the opioid crisis is unlike any of the other drug crises that I remember growing up, from heroin flooding our city streets when I was a little kid, to cocaine in the 70s,”  Pryor said. “Those are all caused and created and pushed by criminal enterprises, not even in our country.” 
• He talked about the opioid manufacturers needing allies like Rogers. 

Michigan Democratic Party: 12 Days of Silence from Mike Rogers After Bombshell Report on His Work to “Boost Opioid Prescriptions” and His “Support of the Drug Industry”

Michigan Democratic Party: What Michigan Union Leaders Are Saying: Mike Rogers “Sold Out Our State to Enrich Himself, Leaving the People Who Built Michigan Behind”

American Journal News: Mike Rogers résumé includes consulting for businesses with shady foreign interests

• When former Rep. Mike Rogers left Congress in 2015, his net worth was estimated at $655,000. Today, he is worth $13 million. This 2,000% increase is the result of lucrative consulting gigs for big corporations, some of which did business with corrupt foreign governments.
• According to Rogers’ 2023 financial disclosures, he served on the board or as a consultant for at least 23 organizations and companies. He reported an income of $2 million and an additional $1.2 million earned through investments in various mutual funds.
• One of the companies that Rogers listed was Telefónica, a Spanish telecommunications company that is also one of the largest wireless providers in Venezuela. 
• Another organization Rogers worked for was IP3 International, a nuclear technology company. The company was formed in 2016 with the purpose of persuading policymakers to support the construction of nuclear reactors in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia. IP3 did this by pushing for less stringent regulations on Saudi Arabia’s nuclear program. If enacted, this could have enabled Saudi Arabia to develop nuclear weapons.
• Rogers also did work for AT&T. He was hired by the telecommunication giant in 2016 to be their Chief Security Adviser. At the time, AT&T was trying to broker a deal with Huawei, a Chinese cell phone manufacturer. 
• In Congress, Rogers led an investigation that concluded Huawei was an arm of the Chinese government, had stolen trade secrets from American corporations, and could potentially spy on Americans. 

Hugh Hewitt Show: Hugh Hewitt: “Mike Rogers is running for Senate in Florida.”

Bridge Michigan: On abortion, some Michigan candidate claims conflict with records

• Democrats, meanwhile, contend Republicans cannot be trusted on the issue, warning that GOP candidates have supported national abortion bans in the past and could do so again if granted total power in Washington. 
• In the race for Michigan’s hotly contested open U.S. Senate seat, Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Republican Mike Rogers also have clearly contrasting histories on abortion policy. 
• Rogers, who previously served in Congress, said in his 1994 campaign that he only supported abortions to save the life of the mother. He later co-sponsored legislation to define human life as beginning at conception and supported a national abortion ban beginning at 20-weeks of pregnancy.
• In 2003, Rogers co-sponsored legislation to withdraw federal approval of the abortion-inducing medication Mifepristone. He co-sponsored that same legislation again two years later, also backing an amendment to bar the U.S. Department of Agriculture from allocating any funds towards the medication.

Michigan Democratic Party: Mike Rogers Campaigns with Anti-Abortion Extremist Tom Cotton

The Hill: Mike Rogers says Republicans will make 2024 election ‘too big to rig’

• When asked on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday” if he is concerned that claims of a stolen election will repeat this cycle, Rogers said, “Here’s what we are doing … We are going to make this too big to rig.”