Flori­da Sher­iff Chad Chro­nis­ter with­draws as Trump’s nom­i­nee to lead DEA

Hills­bor­ough Coun­ty Sher­iff Chad Chro­nis­ter with­drew his name for con­sid­er­a­tion as Pres­i­dent-elect Trump’s nom­i­nee to lead the U.S. Drug Enforce­ment Admin­is­tra­tion (DEA).

“To have been nom­i­nat­ed by Pres­i­dent-Elect @realDonaldTrump to serve as Admin­is­tra­tor of the Drug Enforce­ment Admin­is­tra­tion is the hon­or of a life­time,” Chro­nis­ter wrote in a post 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,” Chro­nis­ter con­tin­ued. 

He said he appre­ci­at­ed the nom­i­na­tion and sup­port from the Amer­i­can peo­ple, and that he’s look­ing for­ward to con­tin­u­ing his work as sher­iff.

THOMAS MASSIE, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATORS VOCALLY OPPOSE TRUMP’S DEA NOMINEE

Dis­trict 1 Coun­ty Com­mis­sion­er of Lake Coun­ty Antho­ny Saba­ti­ni called Chro­nis­ter step­ping down a “huge win for lib­er­ty.” 

TRUMP NOMINATES FLORIDA SHERIFF CHAD CHRONISTER TO LEAD THE DEA

“This sher­iff ordered the arrest of a pas­tor for hold­ing ser­vices dur­ing the COVID pan­ic. He was tapped by Trump to head the DEA. Glad to see him with­draw from con­sid­er­a­tion. Next time politi­cians lose their ever-lovin minds, he can redeem him­self by fol­low­ing the Con­sti­tu­tion,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R‑Ky., wrote in a post on X fol­low­ing the sher­if­f’s announce­ment.

Sen. Mark­wayne Mullin, R‑Okla., spoke to Fox News fol­low­ing Chro­nis­ter’s with­draw­al and defend­ed the sher­iff.

“What dis­qual­i­fies some­body? We all make mis­takes through­out life, right? I haven’t talked any details on that yet. But as far as some­one mak­ing a mis­take in their past, give us an exam­ple of any­body that has­n’t made a mis­take in the past,” Mullin said. 

Chro­nis­ter faced back­lash from mul­ti­ple con­ser­v­a­tive fig­ures for arrest­ing a pas­tor for vio­lat­ing COVID rules.

Pas­tor Rod­ney Howard-Browne was arrest­ed in March 2020 amid the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“Announc­ing the arrest of Dr. Ronald Howard-Browne, Pas­tor of The Riv­er at Tam­pa Bay Church, who inten­tion­al­ly and repeat­ed­ly dis­re­gard­ed state and local pub­lic health orders, which put his con­gre­ga­tion and our com­mu­ni­ty in dan­ger,” Chro­nis­ter not­ed in a tweet at the time.

“We’re hop­ing that this serves as a deter­rent,” Chro­nis­ter said dur­ing a 2020 news con­fer­ence. “Shame on this pas­tor, their legal staff, and the lead­ers of this church for forc­ing us to do our job. That’s not what we want­ed to do dur­ing a declared state of emer­gency.”

The charges were lat­er dropped.

Con­ser­v­a­tive com­men­ta­tor Liz Wheel­er called on Trump to undo his selec­tion fol­low­ing the nom­i­na­tion.

“Chad Chro­nis­ter is a COVID tyrant who arrest­ed a Chris­t­ian pas­tor for hold­ing church in per­son dur­ing the pan­dem­ic. Chro­nis­ter held a press con­fer­ence brag­ging about the arrest. Chro­nis­ter abused his pow­er; he’s unfit to lead the DEA. Trump should with­draw his nom­i­na­tion,” Wheel­er wrote in a pre­vi­ous post on X.

In a pre­vi­ous state­ment to Fox News Dig­i­tal on Mon­day, Rep. Chip Roy, R‑Texas, said, “We don’t need author­i­tar­i­ans who refuse to use dis­cre­tion and pro­tect the Con­sti­tu­tion — no mat­ter which par­ty is in pow­er.”

Despite his arrest, Howard-Browne threw his sup­port behind Chro­nis­ter, shar­ing a video on X along­side the sher­iff. 

“Chad Chro­nis­ter has been my friend for many years, through good times and chal­lenges,” Howard-Browne said in a mes­sage, direct­ed to Trump, that he shared pub­licly on X.

“I tru­ly believe he act­ed with the inten­tion of doing the right thing, and I’ve wit­nessed first­hand how he has learned and grown from those expe­ri­ences. Short­ly after my arrest, Sher­iff Chro­nis­ter called me and told me he tru­ly missed our friend­ship. We met for din­ner at my house, and we were able to restore the friend­ship we had, one I will always cher­ish,” he con­tin­ued.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Chro­nis­ter was appoint­ed by then-Flori­da Gov. Rick Scott to head the Hills­bor­ough Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s Office in 2017, and has been re-elect­ed twice. 

Fox News Dig­i­tal’s Alex Nitzberg con­tributed to this report.