Following an apparent suspension by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Hillsborough Co. State Attorney Andrew Warren appeared on CNN Tonight, Thursday. Warren had previously joined several state prosecutors in pledging to not prosecute people who have abortions after 15 weeks.
“When you flagrantly violate your oath of office, when you make yourself above the law, you have violated your duty, you have neglected your duty and you are displaying a lack of competence to be able to perform those duties,” DeSantis said, Thursday.
Despite the executive order from DeSantis, Warren is an elected official who claims he has not broken his pledge to the Constitution or the people who elected him.
“This just shows how flagrant this overreach is,” Warren said. “This is a blatant violation of the most fundamental principles in our democracy that the people get to elect their leaders. It’s how democracy works. Even my 8-year-old understands that. It’s not a dereliction of duty, in fact, it’s not even talking about things I’ve done in office. It’s talking about things I may do in the future for a law that doesn’t even exist yet. I mean, this is out of, like, 1984 Orwellian Thought Police.”
Since the law came into effect in July, Warren has not been presented with a case. So he believes the suspension is premature at best.
“The governor is just upset because I’m not kowtowing to his agenda,” Warren said. “I’m the one upholding the law here. The law is clear in Florida. A 15-week ban is unconstitutional, and I said I’m not going to enforce it.”
Despite being suspended by DeSantis, the Hillsborough County State Attorney plans on continuing to do the job he was elected to do.
“The reality is the governor can sign some order in his pen or his crayon, and it doesn’t stop what the voters voted for me to do,” Warren said.
CNN Tonight airs weeknights at 9 p.m. on CNN.
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