Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier was peppered with questions Friday at the Tampa Tiger Bay Club.
One was why Gov. Ron DeSantis fired state attorneys Andrew Warren and Monique Worrell — who are Democrats — for choosing not to enforce certain laws, and why Uthmeier shouldn't be fired as well.
On Jan. 19 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day — Uthmeier said he would not enforce dozens of state affirmative action laws he says were “race-based.” The Republican defended himself as upholding the U.S. Constitution.
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"They were picking and choosing what laws to enforce based on their own policy preferences, not based on any question about constitutionality or legality," Uthmeier told the crowd. "Mr. Warren's decision to blanket policy, not enforce certain laws, there was no question about the legality of those laws, where you see local officials that say we don't want to enforce these immigration laws. There's no question."
Uthmeier said his first oath is to the people of Florida — in upholding and defending the Constitution.
"About these immigration laws, where I've made these decisions not to enforce certain Florida laws, that is based on the oath that I take," he said.
Another pointed question was why he is not calling for the release of a grand jury report on Hope Florida. The charity was investigated after the DeSantis administration secretly diverted $10 million from a Medicaid settlement with the state.
That money was sent to a committee controlled by Uthmeier to campaign against a referendum to legalize recreational marijuana in 2024.
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"Under Florida law, I'm not allowed to confirm or deny whether or not there even is a grand jury. There's no charges, no indictments, but by law, I'm not allowed to talk about its existence, any reports or any aspects of any litigation whatsoever," Uthmeier said. "So what I will say is nobody did anything wrong. This has been a politically motivated and media-driven farce. At the end of the day, we're going to keep doing what's right in Florida."
Uthmeier was appointed attorney general by Gov. DeSantis last year after Ashley Moody was appointed as Florida senator, replacing Marco Rubio, who is now secretary of state.
Since then, he has created a task force to crack down on people seeking to bilk the state out of money designed to help vulnerable residents. It's called the Task Force on Public Assistance Fraud. He has also created a task force to look into cold cases dating to the 1960s.
Uthmeier is running to hold the seat on the Republican ticket in the August primary. He'll likely face former Democratic state Sen. José Javier Rodríguez in the general election in November.
