DeSantis Defends Sacking Florida Prosecutor on the Trail in Iowa

CORALVILLE, Iowa — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down on suspending a prosecutor in his state during a presidential campaign event in Iowa on Thursday, saying that “if our country gets overtaken by a woke agenda, it will destroy this country.”

DeSantis suspended Orlando state attorney Monique Worrell a day earlier, saying that she “effectively nullified” some laws by avoiding minimum mandatory sentences for gun crimes and drug trafficking offenses, among others.

“Two cops got shot in the face because somebody was out who should not have been out,” DeSantis told reporters after a town hall at the Iowa River Power Restaurant. “We see a lot of carnage that's happened. So we step up, you know, and we pull the trigger and we hold people accountable.”

DeSantis traveled the eastern part of the state on Thursday in a campaign bus sponsored by the Never Back Down super PAC that is boosting his bid.

The Florida governor also highlighted the state attorney suspension in his stump speech inside the Coralville restaurant.

“I removed her from her post,” DeSantis told the crowd, to applause. “I'm not gonna sit there and take it.”

DeSantis cited two high-profile cases in the suspension, one involving an accused rapist who shot two police officers after being released on bond from jail, and another involving a homicide suspect. Worrell’s supporters have argued that she acted appropriately in both cases.

For her part, Worrell bashed DeSantis as a “weak dictator” and suggested that the governor suspended her to boost his bid for the White House. “I will not be bullied by DeSantis or used as a tool in his failing and disastrous presidential campaign,” Worrell said on social media.

On Capitol Hill, Reps. Maxwell Frost, Jamie Raskin and Dan Goldman sent a letter calling for a House Oversight Committee hearing to examine Worrell's removal and what they called the "the anti-democratic abuses of power happening across Florida."

Worrell’s suspension resonated with Debbie Madley of Cedar Rapids, who attended the DeSantis town hall in Coralville. Madley said she is a Trump supporter but believes DeSantis has a better chance of winning the general election.

“I want somebody in office that’s going to be an enforcer, and enforce to get these people out of office that don’t belong. He just fired his state prosecutor because she wasn’t doing her job,” Madley said. “He’s willing to go after the bad guys and get rid of them.”

John Bain, the host of the Southeast Iowa Today podcast, also praised DeSantis for suspending Worrell. Bain supported Trump in 2016 and 2020, and plans to support the former president again in 2024. Still, he attended the DeSantis town hall and called the governor “a great American.”

“I think other governors that are having the same issue ought to take a note from his playbook and do the same thing,” Bain said in reference to suspending Worrell from her post.