DeSantis also accused Warren of failing to prosecute criminals to the fullest extent of her powers as Hillsborough County state’s attorney.
“To take a position that you have veto powers over state laws is unsustainable,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Tampa surrounded by law enforcement.
The decision by DeSantis, a Republican, to unseat a Democrat elected twice by Hillsborough voters drew immediate and strong rebuke from Democratic state lawmakers and officials. Minority Leader Sen. Lauren Book said DeSantis “behaved more like a dictator than a ‘governor of the United States.'” And Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a Democratic candidate for governor, called the suspension of Warren “a politically motivated attack on a universally respected democratically elected state’s attorney”. exercise prosecutorial discretion.”
“Ron DeSantis is a pathetic killer,” Fried said.
Warren called DeSantis’ action “an illegal overreach that continues a dangerous pattern by Ron DeSantis of using his office to further his own political ambition.” DeSantis is up for re-election in November and is considering whether to run for president in 2024.
“In our community, crime is low, our constitutional rights, including the right to privacy, are being upheld, and people have the right to choose their own leaders, not be dictated to by a would-be presidential candidate has shown time and time again that he is not accountable to anyone,” Warren said in a statement.
Warren plans to hold a news conference at 4:00 PM ET to discuss a development in a 40-year-old cold case.
DeSantis said the decision to suspend Warren came after he ordered staff to review whether Florida’s state attorneys have taken it upon themselves “to determine what laws they like and should be enforced,” after of seeing prosecutors in other states refuse to file charges for certain crimes. . That review led them to Warren, who has become a vocal advocate for criminal justice reform and overturning wrongful convictions.
“The governor shouldn’t have had to come to Hillsborough County and clean up our mess,” former Tampa Police Chief Brian Dugan said during the news conference. “That’s really what it comes down to.”
Under Florida law, a governor can remove “any county officer” for embezzlement, embezzlement, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, or commission of a felony. The Florida Senate has the power to reinstate a suspended official or remove that person from office.
DeSantis appointed Susan Lopez as state attorney during Warren’s suspension. He previously appointed Lopez as a circuit court judge in Hillsborough County. DeSantis told reporters he did not speak to Warren before the announcement.
Warren was first elected state’s attorney in 2016, defeating a longtime Republican incumbent in a close race that predicted the Florida county’s swing to the left. He was re-elected in 2020, winning a higher percentage of the vote in Hillsborough County than President Joe Biden.
During her first years in office, Warren kept a relatively low profile as she quietly modernized the bureau and embraced criminal justice reforms. In 2018, he endorsed the re-election campaign of the county’s Republican Sheriff-elect, Chad Chronister, and frequently held press conferences with law enforcement. In turn, Chronister praised Warren in the months leading up to the Democratic campaign for a second term.
But Chronister hosted Thursday’s press conference at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and delivered a scathing critique of Warren while standing by DeSantis. (Chronister’s wife, Nicole DeBartolo, and father-in-law, Edward DeBartolo, a former NFL owner who was granted a presidential pardon by Donald Trump, have given a combined $472,000 to DeSantis’ re-election campaign.)
Warren was increasingly critical of DeSantis during the pandemic. Early in the coronavirus outbreak, he publicly criticized the governor’s decision to allow megachurches to operate in Florida just days after the arrest of a Tampa pastor who challenged the in-person service. Later that summer, Warren announced that she would not prosecute 67 people arrested in a protest following the death of George Floyd.
But it was Warren’s foray into the country’s political divide over transgender care and abortion that prompted DeSantis’ action Thursday. Warren last year joined dozens of local and state prosecutors who signed a letter written by the progressive organization Fair and Just Prosecution denouncing laws that criminalize doctors who provide gender-affirming care to transgender people. After the United States Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and remove constitutional protections for abortion, Warren signed another Fair and Justice letter pledging to use discretion not to use “limited resources of the criminal legal system” to prosecute those who seek, provide or support abortion. abortions
The stance on abortion put Warren at odds with a new state law banning abortion in Florida after 15 weeks. DeSantis, who last year signed a ban on transgender girls and women from participating in school sports as women, has also taken steps to ban care for gender-affirming children, which he called Thursday “that cut literally the private parts of small children.”
“I think they’re really egregious, and again, it goes beyond exercising discretion,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis has used his power to remove certain elected officials more than his predecessors. In one of his first actions as governor, DeSantis suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, who oversaw the police response to the deadly mass shooting at a Parkland high school.
But past suspensions were the result of actions already taken by elected officials. Warren’s suspension is in part because of actions that have yet to be taken. In particular, the state’s new abortion law is facing a legal challenge and a judge said it violated the state constitution, although a higher court said otherwise.
“I spit in the face of the voters of Hillsborough County who elected me twice to serve them, not Ron DeSantis,” Warren said.