Trump's pick to lead the DEA withdraws from consideration
Chad Chronister, President-elect Donald Trump's selection to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Tuesday that he would withdraw from consideration.
Chad Chronister, President-elect Donald Trump's selection to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Tuesday that he would withdraw from consideration.
Chronister, who is the sheriff in Hillsborough County, Florida, said he would turn down Trump's planned nomination to be the next DEA administrator just three days after Trump announced it.
He is the second of Trump's administration picks to take his name out of the running, after former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., dropped his bid to become attorney general last month.
Chronister is a longtime Florida law enforcement official whose father-in-law is Edward DeBartolo Jr., the former owner of the San Francisco 49ers. The pick was widely praised by Republicans in Florida, including by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But Chronister ran into a series of hurdles from Trump’s political base because of how he handled the coronavirus pandemic — particularly his decision in 2020 to arrest Ronald Howard-Browne, a Tampa-area pastor, for the decision to flout pandemic-era lockdown orders. The charges were ultimately dropped.
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