‘If ifs and buts were candy and nuts’: DeSantis won’t say if he’ll suspend a reelected Andrew Warren
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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a lot to say about suspended Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren at a Wednesday news conference in Redington Shores.
However, the governor remained tight-lipped about whether he would remove Warren from his post if he is reelected as the county’s top prosecutor this year.
When 8 On Your Side’s Nicole Rogers asked DeSantis about the potential for a second suspension, he had this to say:
If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas. I think it’s all going to work out and I think it will be good.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
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DeSantis ousted the twice-elected Democrat in 2022 after Warren vowed not to prosecute women who have abortions or the physicians who perform those procedures. The governor went on to say Warren’s actions were considered neglect of duty and were ideologically aligned with the “defund the police” movement – and that’s not going to fly in the so-called “law and order state.”
“My suspension was unjust, because it was part of a political stunt,” Warren told 8 On Your Side earlier this month. “The governor didn’t have the power to suspend me, and he violated my constitutional rights by suspending me for speaking out on issues of importance, primarily on a woman’s right to choose.”
The governor claims Hillsborough County is becoming safer and drawing in more conservative voters with Suzy Lopez at the helm as state attorney.
“Talk to any of the sheriff’s deputies, talk to the sheriff himself about the change that’s happened,” DeSantis said. “Cycling criminals and letting them out, going easy, that doesn’t work.”
“The truth is that we made Hillsborough County the safest large county in the state and the truth is that the governor is the one who broke the law,” Warren told Rogers last week. “I never did anything wrong, not a hint of misconduct, like the court said.”
Warren, who was spotted in the crowd during President Joe Biden’s visit to Tampa on Tuesday, maintains that his suspension was illegal and violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech.
He announced his reelection campaign against DeSantis appointee Lopez earlier this month. Months prior, he told reporters he would not seek reelection in 2024.
A ruling handed down just days later changed his mind.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle in Tallahassee said he sided with Warren, but he lacked the authority to reinstate him. An appeals court determined that Hinkle actually does have the lawful ability to reinstate the ousted state attorney.
“What changed is that appellate court opinion that upheld the law,” Warren said. “By affirming the illegality of the suspension and that the court has the power to reinstate me, the court made clear that the governor can’t just throw out peoples’ votes for whatever reason he cooks up and that the will of the voters matters.”
Warren said the situation is frustrating him because “two courts have essentially ruled in (his) favor, but (he’s) yet to be reinstated.”
In Warren v. DeSantis, DeSantis requested a full panel of judges to weigh in after a January court order. As for where the case stands now, the appellate court asked Warren and DeSantis’ attorneys on Tuesday to respond to two Supreme Court cases involving elected officials and freedom of speech.
“The most frustrating thing is that I’m being denied and the voters are being denied their choice of state attorney,” Warren said earlier this month.
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