(LifeSiteNews) — Returning President Donald Trump is facing backlash for his selection to lead the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Hillsborough County (Florida) Sheriff Chad Chronister has a history of embracing “woke” causes and using his office to enforce harsh COVID-19 policies, the most extreme of which was the arrest of a pastor for holding religious services in person.
“For over 32 years, Sheriff Chad Chronister has served the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and received countless commendations and awards for keeping his community SAFE,” Trump declared via Truth Social. “As DEA Administrator, Chad will work with our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to secure the Border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs, across the Southern Border, and SAVE LIVES.”
However, Chronister was quickly identified as having arrested Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne, pastor of The River at Tampa Bay Church, in March 2020 for “intentionally and repeatedly host(ing) church services with hundreds of members in attendance” in violation of COVID emergency orders against large public gatherings.
“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,” Chronister claimed at the time, accusing Howard-Browne of “reckless disregard for human life” that “put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands of residents who may interact with them this week in danger.”
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis intervened at the time, superseding county stay-at-home orders with a statewide order protecting religious assembly as ‘’essential” activity. DeSantis went on to remove from office State Attorney Andrew Warren, who was behind the arrest warrant. Chronister later apologized to Howard-Browne, who on Sunday endorsed the sheriff’s nomination. On Monday, DeSantis credited Chronister with backing his removal of Warren and helping keep the office out of left-wing hands.
However, while an argument could be made that Chronister had no choice but to enforce the orders of superiors in the Howard-Browne case, it is far from the only concerning element of his record.
The Daily Caller reported that in March 2020, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office released 164 inmates early to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in the jail. Chronister defended the move at the time on the grounds that “We want to protect our employees here. We want to protect the remainder of the jail population. We also feel these low-level, non-violent offenders will be better served at home with their families.” But at least one of those early releases, Joseph Edwards Williams, went on to commit murder just one day after being freed.
RedState has many more details on Chronister’s background, including his support for LGBT “Pride” events, his self-description as “the most Democratic of Republicans” (including by his own admission that he only adopted GOP party affiliation to align with the party of his superiors in the sheriff’s office, his donating tens of thousands of dollars to Democrat candidates, his support for “red flag” gun confiscation laws, his deciding whether employees sick with COVID had to use their accrued time off based on whether or not they took the COVID vaccine, and his 2023 assurance that “we do not target individuals based on their immigration status” ahead of a tough new immigration law taking effect.
Chronister joins a lineup of Trump Cabinet picks that has received a mixed reception from conservatives. On COVID, Trump has chosen fierce establishment critics Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health & Human Services and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for National Institutes of Health director. But he has also nominated Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, who promoted COVID masking, social distancing, and vaccines well into 2022, to be his Surgeon General.