Scrambled signals on latest Trump pick no-go
Chad Chronister with his wife Nicole "Nikki" DeBartolo in Manhattan in 2020. Credit: GC Images/Raymond Hall
Less than a month since Election Day, President-elect Donald Trump’s selections for his second administration seem to be generating more separate controversies than his first transition had at this point nearly eight years ago.
The clearly dubious selection of Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general while under investigation for sexual misconduct collapsed quickly. Other unorthodox top-level Trump nominations are now reported to be hanging by a thread as a second voluntarily pulled out while facing criticism.
One of these, the former "Fox & Friends" host Pete Hegseth, was announced for defense secretary. He had been expected to host the Fox Nation Patriot Awards at LIU Post’s Brookville campus where Trump is due to appear Thursday. The network’s Sean Hannity, a former Long Islander, will do the honors instead.
This awkward little episode raises anew the deeper question of what qualities — other than TV presentability, political alliance, and a commitment to smash current governance norms — have been the standards for Trump’s selections.
On Tuesday Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, Florida, said he was taking his name out of consideration as Trump’s pick to run the Drug Enforcement Administration. Howls of bitter protest to Chronister’s nomination had arisen from Trump loyalists in Congress. Now Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, who lost reelection last month, is jockeying for the post.
This, after Republican politicians in Florida and elsewhere blasted Chronister’s enforcement of public health laws in the earliest days of COVID-19. In March 2020 Chronister’s office had Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne arrested on second-degree misdemeanor charges — after the pastor allegedly couldn’t be talked out of assembling hundreds of people at his megachurch despite "lockdown" restrictions imposed to fight the disease’s spread.
Howard-Browne had said the church had taken other protection measures such as using hand-sanitizer and social distancing. Chronister said: "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."
One side note: Chronister is married to Nicole "Nikki" DeBartolo, the daughter of San Francisco 49ers former owner Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. In February 2020, Trump pardoned the elder DeBartolo — for a 1998 bribery charge on which the latter pleaded guilty.
When Chronister tweeted his withdrawal on ‘X’ Tuesday, he called the nomination the "honor of a lifetime" but said, "There is more work to be done for the citizens of Hillsborough County and a lot of initiatives I am committed to fulfilling."
What followed was reminiscent of crossed signals and chaos of the previous Trump administration. On Wednesday, despite hailing Chronister four days earlier for his "countless commendations and awards for keeping his community SAFE," the former and future president said on his TruthSocial site: "He didn’t pull out, I pulled him out, because I did not like what he said to my pastors and other supporters."
Chronister said later in the day he indeed withdrew. "Sheriff Chronister stands behind his decision to withdraw from consideration," said a statement from his Hillsborough County office.
Either way, what goes unanswered is why Trump nominated him in the first place if "what he said to my pastors" first raised a ruckus among his loyalists nearly five years ago. Seems like Trump is bound to make the White House chaotic again.
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.