To diffuse claims of racism for groundlessly removing Monique Worrell, a Black state attorney who was elected by a two-to-one margin, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced her with a Black judge who is a member of the Federalist Society. But, according to the Orlando Sentinel, Andrew Bain is also not a very good judge:

In his time overseeing criminal cases in county court, Bain received low marks in a judicial qualifications poll by the Central Florida Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, ranking last among Orange County criminal judges, with respondents describing him as “state-leaning” or prosecution-biased.

At a press conference announcing his appointment, Bain offered a word-salad nonexplanation of why he’s a member of the Federalist Society, a powerful group that is uncannily influential in getting presidents and governors to name conservatives to top judicial posts, including the Supreme Court:

“I am a member simply for this reason: My grandmother was a sharecropper, so when she came time to harvest her harvest in her family and the landowner shorted her, she had no legal recourse because the judges made the laws,” he said. “And that’s purely unfair. And that stuff’s been going on forever.”

“Those judges, those purposeless judges that brought you Jim Crow, have authorized the imprisonment of Japanese Americans, have told American citizens they’re not American citizens, they’re Samoan Islanders, because they’re too different,” he said. “Those same judges have also allowed the removal of women’s rights to even have babies because they have babies out of wedlock. So I don’t believe in that type of system. That system is unfair, it’s unjust.”

Of course, as is typical in DeSantistan, Bain’s official judicial biography already has been scrubbed from the Florida 9th Judicial Circuit website. However, BallotPedia has his survey responses from when he ran for re-election to the Orange County courts successfully in 2022.

At the press conference, DeSantis silently smirked in the background while his court jester, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, waved printouts of internet memes denigrating Worrell at the gathered media.

It must have felt good for the governor to take a break from the rigors of the presidential campaign trail where he continues to not ignite voter and donor excitement, and get back to the fun task of turning Florida into a fascist state.