Exclusive interview, David Wu (part six): Why take mystery pills from a friend? (And more on Valium)

A month ago, Wu admitted taking a prescription painkiller in 2010 from a campaign donor without obtaining a prescription - and without asking what they were. Later, he disclosed that in 2008 he'd had an allergic reaction to prescribed Ambien and Valium and had to be hospitalized.

Which raises an important question about his judgment.

KARI: One question that has come up again and again. In 2008, you described how you had this rather unfortunate side effect of a drug interaction that your doctors weren’t clued in to. And that’s unfortunate. It happens. In 2010, there was this incident where you were feeling some pain and you took two pills from a donor at a dinner. One publication described it as oxycodone. Another publication described it as ibuprofen. You’ve been quoted as saying you don’t know what it was. Given the 2008 experience, why would you take some pills from a friend if you didn’t know what they were?

WU: It was nuts! It was really nuts. It was a bad thing to do. It was the wrong thing to do. I don’t know if you’ve ever had neck or back pain. I haven’t had the back or neck pain since the election was over, strangely enough. You can do something really stupid, and I did.

I’ll tell you what, I don’t think anybody knows. I don’t think anybody knows. People can speculate until the cows come home. But I don’t think anybody knows what it was that I took. I don’t. Those publications can speculate. These people can speculate.

KARI: That’s why I wanted to ask you.

WU: Yeah. And I’m telling you that what I said is what I know. That I don’t know, and I don’t think anybody does.

And the problem is, it’s hard to find that plausible. But you know what? That’s what -- it’s like the ’08 thing. It was a complex biochemical, physiological thing. I didn’t want to ever try to explain it, because it’s so difficult to explain. But ultimately I saw what these folks were doing and I thought, “You better get ahead of this and explain that.”

Later in the interview, Wu talked about ending his use of prescription Valium:

WU: I found out two years ago: Don’t take this. You have to find other ways of relaxing other than taking a Valium. And I think that there are other ways – getting exercise is one. I’m taking up yoga!

And later, he returned to the theme:

WU: I have worked my life through to a better place where – without Valium, I feel good. Because there are other ways to achieve the same thing. You can be a Congressman and still be healthy. You know, the two are not necessarily exclusive. But for god’s sake, don’t tell people you’ve stopped drinking. Just don’t do it. I think I’ll go have half a glass of wine tonight, so I can say it tomorrow.

Previously:

• Intro: Is David Wu fit to be a Congressman? Our exclusive interview.
• Part one: Why did his pollster say that his staff "need to be protected"?
• Part two: What happened that final weekend before election day?
• Part three: Have his former staffers been silenced?
• Part four: Why did so many senior staff leave?
• Part five: Has the media coverage been fair?