Politico's Pulse Check

"All the great gains that we've made in this country, reducing smoking rates ... all of that will be reversed or lost if we can't address the youth use of e-cigarettes." FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is planning a crackdown on sales of e-cigarettes — a story that broke on Thursday — and he sat down exclusively with POLITICO to talk about why the agency is making such a dramatic move. Gottlieb joined POLITICO's Dan Diamond to discuss his infamous "almonds don't lactate" comment and other nutrition news (starts at the 6:00 mark), explain his concerns about e-cigarettes and tease the FDA's pending crackdown (14:45), answer questions about the Trump administration's approach to science and vaccines (30:30), discuss FDA's new approach to approving opioids (35:30) and explain why the FDA's drug importation working group has been so low-profile (38:30). And stick around for the lightning round of questions about Gottlieb's job, which starts at 42:30. But first, POLITICO's Sarah Owermohle joins the podcast to p