Trump picks Florida sheriff Chad Chronister for DEA administrator
Hillsborough County Sheriff
(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump announced he will nominate Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump said that Chronister — who has served the Tampa, Florida, area for over 32 years — will work with his attorney general selection, Pam Bondi, to help secure the U.S.-Mexico Border.
The DEA administrator is a Senate-confirmed position.
“As DEA Administrator, Chad will work with our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to secure the Border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs, across the Southern Border, and SAVE LIVES,” Trump wrote.
Chronister was appointed to lead the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office by then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott in 2017 and has been twice reelected by voters.
He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in science in criminal justice from St. Leo University and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy’s 260th session.
Chronister is married to Nikki DeBartolo and has two sons.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody took to X on Saturday to congratulate Chronister on the nomination and praise his experience in fighting on the “frontlines” of the opioid crisis.
“Chad has fought on the frontlines of the opioid crisis, and I know his leadership and decades of experience will be invaluable as we work to combat the flow of Mexican fentanyl into our county,” Moody wrote.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is taking maybe his final lap on the world stage this week with a trip to South America.
He’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, making a historic visit to the Amazon rainforest and attending two major summits.
His travel comes just about a week after the U.S. election threw into question what America’s role in the world will be during the next four years under President-elect Donald Trump.
Biden will kick off his trip to South America by traveling to Lima, Peru, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. While there, he will meet with Peru’s President Dina Boluarte and other world leaders.
Biden’s time at APEC will likely come under heightened scrutiny because Trump has vowed to enact major tariffs that could vastly affect global trade.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said that Biden would “reinforce America’s leading role in the Indo-Pacific,” and touted his success in enhancing America’s “strategic position” in the region during a briefing with reporters on Wednesday. Sullivan touted Biden’s relationship with Indo-Pacific partners as at “a literal all-time high,” and said that is “what he’s going to hand off to President Trump.”
On Saturday, Biden’s planned sit-down with China’s President Xi will be the first with his Chinese counterpart since the two men met in Woodside, California, last November. It is also expected to be their last meeting as presidents.
“This meeting between President Biden and President Xi will be an opportunity to ensure a smooth transition and also to continue to keep those channels of communication open, including those especially critical military to military channels of communication,” Sullivan said.
Given that, the a senior administration official said that Biden will use the meeting as a point of reflection about how the U.S.-China relationship has evolved. The official declined to talk about what Biden’s message to Xi would be about policies to expect from a Trump administration.
“I think the way I come at this question is this is a tough, complicated relationship between the U.S. and China. And so whatever the next administration decides, they’re going to need to find ways to manage that tough, complicated relationship,” the official said on a call with reporters.
President Biden will then head to Manaus, Brazil – in the Amazon region – to engage with “local, indigenous, and other leaders working to preserve and protect this critical ecosystem,” according to the White House.
This will be a historic visit, the first time a sitting president has visited the Amazon rainforest, according to the White House. Sullivan said that the trip will “underscore his personal commitment” to combating climate change in the U.S. and around the world.
Biden’s historic visit comes as the next administration will likely enact major changes when it comes to climate policy. Trump has called climate change a hoax and has promised to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
After that, Biden will travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to participate in the G20 summit. Sullivan said Biden’s aims in Rio will be to reassure allies despite pending differences in foreign policy as Trump prepares to take office.
“[Biden’s] going to have the same message that he’s had for four years as president, which is that he believes that America’s allies are vital to America’s national security,” Sullivan said. “They contribute to our common causes, including the cause of standing up for freedom and territorial integrity in Ukraine.”
Sullivan also said that there will be a major focus on structuring debt for low-and middle-income countries and helping finance for physical, digital and energy infrastructure. He added that geopolitical issues, including “Ukraine to the Middle East,” will also be crucial.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at the Libertarian National Convention on May 24, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association is investigating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after the resurfacing of a decades-old incident in which Kennedy allegedly drove a dead whale’s head across state lines, a representative for the agency told ABC News.
Kate Silverstein, a spokeswoman for NOAA Fisheries, told ABC News Monday that the agency was investigating Kennedy, confirming what the former independent presidential candidate told a crowd in Arizona over the weekend.
“I received a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Institute saying that they were investigating me for collecting a whale specimen 20 years ago,” Kennedy said at the event, where he was campaigning for former President Donald Trump, whom he endorsed after suspending his own campaign.
In a 2012 Town and Country article, Kennedy’s daughter, Kick Kennedy, told an anecdote about her father’s handling of a dead whale that washed up on a Massachusetts beach.
Robert Kennedy used a chainsaw to cut off the head of the whale and strapped it to the roof of his minivan roughly three decades ago, Kick Kennedy recounted.
The story resurfaced last month and drew condemnation from at least one environmental group, which called for the NOAA to investigate.
Silverstein did not respond to a question seeking confirmation that NOAA’s investigation was related to the incident Kick Kennedy described.
She said the agency does not comment on ongoing investigations.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on Wednesday continued to do clean up from President Joe Biden’s “garbage” comment, even as former President Donald Trump seized on it and the controversy dominated the news cycle, distracting from Harris’ “closing argument.”
On Tuesday night, Biden seemed to call Trump supporters as “garbage” during a campaign call hosted by the nonprofit Voto Latino.
“And just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,'” Biden said, according to a video clip from the fundraiser that aired on CNN.
“I don’t — I — I don’t know the Puerto Rican that — that I know — or a Puerto Rico, where I’m fr- — in my home state of Delaware, they’re good, decent, honorable people. The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been,” Biden said.
His comments quickly drew fire from Republicans and came just as Harris was delivering her closing argument speech nearby on the Ellipse, calling for Americans to turn the page on hateful rhetoric and division in American politics.
At a campaign rally in Mount Rock, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Trump tied Harris to Biden’s comments.
“Now speaking on a call for her campaign last night, Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called them garbage. And they mean it,” Trump said.
“Even though without question my supporters are far higher quality than Crooked Joe or Lyin’ Kamala,” Trump said. “My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple: you can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans.”
Biden himself posted a clarification on Tuesday night, saying that his comment was about the comedian who made the joke and “referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage — which is the only word I can think of to describe it.”
“His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation,” Biden said in the post on X.
At her daily briefing, reporters pressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about Biden’s comments.
“No, he does not view Trump supporters or anybody who supports Trump as garbage,” Jean-Pierre insisted.
“The president has said this for more than three years now, he has said multiple times that he is a president for all. It doesn’t matter if you live in a red state, it doesn’t matter if you live in a blue state.”
When asked whether Biden misspoke or regrets his remarks, Jean-Pierre answered the president “clarified what he said” to ensure it was not “taken out of context.”
“He took the extra step to clarify. And, you know, you don’t see that from many elected officials, you certainly didn’t see that from the former president. And this president wanted to make sure it was not taken out of context,” Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre said the president spoke to Harris Tuesday night after her speech to congratulate her. She wouldn’t say, though, if Biden had apologized or made any reference to his comment when they spoke.
For her part, Harris tried to distance herself from the comments. In an interview with ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce, Harris was asked how she felt when she heard his “garbage” remark.
“Well, first of all, I think that the president has explained what he meant,” Harris told Bruce. “But I said it earlier, I strongly disagree with any criticism of the people based on who they vote for and I’ve made that clear throughout my career, including my speech last night before I think this all happened, which is I intend to be president for all Americans, and including those who may not vote for me in this election.”
But this incident isn’t the first time the White House and Harris’ campaign has had to play clean up after a Biden gaffe raised eyebrows. Just last week Biden was talking about Trump and said, “We gotta lock him up. Politically lock him up.”
The comments also come as Biden is planning to travel to battleground Pennsylvania twice later this week – for campaign and official events. Jean-Pierre said that for now there are now plans to adjust his schedule.
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Will McDuffie and Alexandra Hurtzler contributed to this report.
