By Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com 
Email the author | Follow on Twitter 
on March 29, 2017 at 8:03 AM, updated March 29, 2017 at 4:56 PM

TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie confirmed during a series of television interviews Wednesday morning that President Donald Trump has picked him to chair a commission to find ways to fight the opioid abuse epidemic in the U.S.

"This is killing our families in every corner of our country," the New Jersey governor said on ABC's "Good Morning America" hours before he is slated to appear alongside Trump, a fellow Republican, in a roundtable discussion at the White House about the issue. 

Christie stressed in a separate interview on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" that "addiction is a disease."

"And we need to treat it that way, and we need to get these people the help that they need to renew their lives," he said.

Christie, who has long made the issue a key part of his platform as governor, appeared on three TV morning news shows Wednesday -- filming all of them while standing in front of the White House.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that Trump was expected to announce sometime this week that Christie, a longtime friend and adviser, would chair the commission. 

Sources told NJ Advance Media that it will be a part-time volunteer job and Christie will not have to step down as governor to assume the role. 

It has been speculated for months that Christie may eventually land a job in Trump's administration. When Christie appeared on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday, host Matt Lauer asked him if this was a stepping stone to a full-time job in the White House.

"I'm the governor of New Jersey, Matt. I've made it really clear to the president that it's my desire to finish my time,'' said Christie, whose final term as governor ends in January. "I'm able to do this opioid commission because we both feel passionately about this issue, and we want to try to save lives.''

The governor noted that four times as many people died of drug overdoses than were murdered last year and three times as many compared to those who died in car accidents. 

Christie said the commission will look at what both the federal government and state governments can do to help prevent and treat addiction and will make recommendations to the president. 

He dismissed a question about how funding for combatting addiction under Medicaid would have been cut under the Republican health care bill that was scuttled last week. 

"The bill was the beginning of a negotiation," the governor said on "Good Morning America." 

Christie's media blitz came hours before three of his former allies are scheduled to be sentenced in the Bridgegate trial.