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This is what an autocrat looks like

She was a duly elected district attorney. And he just removed her from her post as he did another DA who said he didn’t approve of one of DeSantis’ policies.

Sincle Florida is pretty much a one-party state there’s not much she can do about it:

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida suspended the top state prosecutor in Orlando on Wednesday, accusing her of incompetence and neglect of duty for what he characterized as lenience against violent criminals. The move was the governor’s latest aggressive use of executive power against local officials of the opposing political party.

Mr. DeSantis suspended Monique H. Worrell, the elected state attorney of Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, which includes Orange and Osceola Counties, and cited as reasons her handling of three cases and a low overall incarceration rate, among other things. One of the three cases involved a man who shot and injured two Orlando police officers over the weekend.

It is the second time in a year that Mr. DeSantis, a Republican running for president, has taken the drastic and exceedingly rare step of removing an elected state attorney. Both have been Democrats.

Mr. DeSantis’s presidential campaign, with its focus on cultural issues, has struggled to gain traction among likely Republican primary voters, who said in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll that they would be more likely to support a candidate “who focuses on restoring law and order” over one “who focuses on defeating radical ‘woke’ ideology.” Mr. DeSantis replaced his campaign manager on Tuesday.

The governor was heavily criticized in August 2022 when he removed Andrew H. Warren, the top prosecutor in Tampa, who had signed a statement along with 90 other elected prosecutors across the country vowing not to prosecute people who seek or provide abortions. Critics blasted the ouster as politically motivated. But Mr. Warren remains out of office — and Mr. DeSantis mentions his removal in just about every campaign speech.

Mr. DeSantis said on Wednesday that Ms. Worrell’s office had charged cases in ways that would avoid mandatory minimum sentences for gun and drug trafficking crimes; allowed juveniles to avoid serious charges or incarceration; found ways to avoid seeking more serious sentences when they were available; limited charges for child pornography; and inappropriately allowed some offenders to avoid having a criminal conviction on their records.

“Prosecutors do have a certain amount of discretion about which cases to bring and which not,” Mr. DeSantis, a former federal and military prosecutor, said. “But what this state attorney has done is abuse that discretion and has effectively nullified certain laws in the state of Florida.”

The governor appointed Andrew A. Bain, a judge from the same judicial circuit, to take Ms. Worrell’s place. Ms. Worrell may appeal her suspension to the Republican-controlled State Senate, or try to get the Florida Supreme Court, where a majority of justices were appointed by Mr. DeSantis, to hear her case.

And yes, she is a Black woman. No surprise there.

At this point it’s pretty clear that he’s not doing any of this just because he’s running for president. He really is that guy — that Viktor Orban guy.

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