{"id":3202,"date":"2024-12-03T23:22:35","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T23:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-dea-nominee-withdraws\/"},"modified":"2024-12-03T23:22:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T23:22:35","slug":"trumps-dea-nominee-withdraws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-dea-nominee-withdraws\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s DEA nominee withdraws"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration abruptly withdrew his name from consideration on Tuesday just days after being chosen.<\/p>\n

Chad Chronister said in a post on X that he made the decision \u201cas the gravity of this very important responsibility set in,\u201d but didn\u2019t cite a reason for his withdrawal other than concluding he wanted to continue in his current role as a sheriff in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is more work to be done for the citizens of Hillsborough County and a lot of initiatives I am committed to fulfilling,\u201d he said. \u201cI sincerely appreciate the nomination, outpouring of support by the American people, and look forward to continuing my service as Sheriff of Hillsborough County.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chronister was initially appointed to his job as county sheriff by then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott in 2017 before successfully running for election to the role. He also overlapped in the office with Pam Bondi, Trump\u2019s pick for attorney general, when she was a state prosecutor. Trump said in a post on Truth Social Saturday<\/u><\/a>, when he announced his selection, that Chronister would \u201csecure the Border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs, across the Southern Border, and SAVE LIVES.”<\/p>\n

Chronister drew criticism from some conservatives, including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), over his actions during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, his office arrested a Tampa pastor for violating quarantine orders to hold services. Charges against the pastor were ultimately dropped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to call \u2018em like I see \u2019em. Trump\u2019s nominee for head of DEA should be disqualified for ordering the arrest a pastor who defied COVID lockdowns,\u201d Massie, a member of the House Judiciary and House Rules Committees, posted on X <\/u><\/a>on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Chronister\u2019s crime fighting approach as sheriff of a purple county also hasn\u2019t necessarily fallen in line<\/u><\/a> with conservative orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I stepped into my role as Hillsborough County Sheriff, I knew that as a law enforcement agency, we could not arrest our way out of problems like drug addiction and mental health issues in our community,” Chronister said in 2021. “We had to take a holistic approach in order to reduce recidivism.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Gov. Ron DeSantis, who\u2019d been a vocal critic of Covid lockdowns, publicly backed Chronister\u2019s nomination<\/u><\/a>. He specifically cited a decision he made in 2022, when Chronister stood beside him as he ousted a left-leaning prosecutor, Andrew Warren.<\/p>\n

Asked for comment about Chronister\u2019s withdrawal, Trump transition spokesperson Brian Hughes said the sheriff\u2019s statement spoke for itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration abruptly withdrew his name from consideration on Tuesday just days after being chosen. Chad Chronister said in a post on X that he made the decision \u201cas the gravity of this very important responsibility set in,\u201d but didn\u2019t cite a reason for his withdrawal other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}