When Donald Trump announced that he wanted then-Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz to lead the Justice Department, the result was a predicable fiasco: The unqualified, scandal-plagued, right-wing Florida congressman was forced to withdraw after just eight days.
The president-elect’s choice to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration didn’t even last that long. NBC News reported:
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.
Chronister certainly isn’t the first person to withdraw in the wake of a president-elect’s announcement, but the fact that his prospective nomination only lasted from Saturday to Tuesday is quite extraordinary.
The larger question, of course, is why Chronister exited the stage so quickly.
For many Trump administration critics, the choice was quickly panned because Chronister, a local sheriff in Florida, appeared to have dubious qualifications. It also did not go unnoticed that Chronister is the son-in-law of a very wealthy man who received a pardon from Trump shortly before he exited the White House four years ago.
But it wasn’t pressure from the left that derailed this prospective nomination.
The official explanation is that Trump’s choice to lead the DEA made the decision to step aside as “the gravity of this very important responsibility set in.” As for the unofficial explanation, The Washington Post highlighted one of Chronister’s biggest problems: He had too many critics on the right.
Some conservatives had opposed Trump’s choice of Chronister, citing the sheriff’s enforcement of public health orders during the covid pandemic. The right-wing opposition crystallized around Chronister’s arrest of a pastor who was charged with ignoring state and local public health orders by holding large church services in March 2020 — the same month the World Health Organization declared covid-19 a pandemic and Trump declared a national emergency.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the day after Trump announced his choice to lead the DEA, said Chronister’s efforts to keep his community safe during a pandemic “disqualified” him for the post. Around the same time, the far-right Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association issued a statement saying that it was “shocked and dismayed” by the selection. It was against this backdrop that Chronister gave up on pursuing the post. [Update: The president-elect said online that he pushed Chronister out, further discrediting the sheriff’s official explanation.) Let’s not forget the fact that Trump’s election victory was less than a month ago, and he’s already suffered two embarrassing personnel failures — with more potentially on the way. Those concerned about the president-elect’s competence during the transition period have plenty of evidence to point to.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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