Trump DEA nominee withdraws after COVID backlash
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has withdrawn his name from consideration following enormous backlash over his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republicans were outraged after Trump tapped Florida’s Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister for the role last week, pointing to his discrimination of the unvaccinated and his arrest of a pastor who held prayer services during lockdown.
On Wednesday, Chronister said he turned down the nomination.
“To have been nominated by President-Elect [Trump] to serve as Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration is the honor of a lifetime,” Chronister said in a statement on X. “Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration. There is more work to be done for the citizens of Hillsborough County and a lot of initiatives I am committed to fulfilling.”
“I sincerely appreciate the nomination, outpouring of support by the American people, and look forward to continuing my service as Sheriff of Hillsborough County,” he concluded.
Medical discrimination
The appointment had raised protests from Republicans who recall Chronister’s actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chronister discriminated against unvaccinated police officers, for example, penalizing them for falling ill while accommodating vaccinated officers who contracted the virus.
“I put out a policy a few weeks ago that if you’re unvaccinated and you have to quarantine or you get ill, you have to use your own [accrued time]. If you’re vaccinated and for some reason you fall ill, the Sheriff’s office is going to cover your time off,” Chronister said at the time. “This has to be for our 4,000 employees to keep them healthy but absolutely [also] the public.”
Lockdown enforcement
In March 2020, Chronister’s office arrested Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne, pastor of The River Church in Tampa Bay, for violating lockdown orders by holding prayer services. Howard-Browne was charged with two second-degree misdemeanors: Unlawful Assembly and Violation of Public Health Emergency Rules.
“I believe there is nothing more important than faith at a time like this, and as a Sheriff’s Office, we would never impede on someone’s ability to lean on their religious beliefs as a means of comfort, but practicing those beliefs has to be done safely,” said Chronister in a statement at the time, adding: “His reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands of residents who may interact with them this week in danger.”
That same month, Chronister released 164 inmates to “slow the spread” of COVID-19 in the county jail. One of those freed inmates, Joseph Edwards Williams, was arrested for murdering a man just hours after his release.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) had called for Chronister’s disqualification.
“I’m going to call ‘em like I see ‘em,” tweeted Massie. “Trump’s nominee for head of DEA should be disqualified for ordering the arrest [of] a pastor who defied COVID lockdowns.”
