Austin Durrer, Florida Democrat gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist’s former campaign manager, was arrested on charges of domestic violence just one day before Crist’s campaign announced he was leaving the campaign “to focus on a family matter.”
On Wednesday, Crist spokeswoman Samantha Ramirez announced Durrer’s exit from the campaign to “focus on a family matter.”
However, it has been revealed that local law enforcement arrested Durrer on domestic violence charges on Tuesday.
As NBC News reported:
In a brief telephone interview with NBC News, Durrer acknowledged the arrest occurred in the dispute with the mother of his child, Jackie Whisman, with whom he lives. He said he pressed charges the following day, which NBC News confirmed via online court records. She confirmed the account and issued a joint statement with him.
Durrer’s wife had “signs of physical injury to her face,” according to Dorchester County interim state attorney Amanda Leonard.
“She [the alleged victim] indicated that there had been an argument that had turned physical with the father of her child who is identified as Austin Durrer. There were signs of physical injury to her face, consistent with what she reported,” Leonard told NBC News.
Durrer was arrested at their Cambridge, Maryland, home “on the spot,” pursuant to law enforcement’s authority to arrest someone in response to a domestic violence call if there are signs of physical injury.
Crist’s campaign on Friday said in a statement that Durrer “was dismissed as soon as the campaign learned of this situation.”
“Not sure who in Crist World thought it was a good idea to mislead Florida reporters by saying Austin Durrer quit to ‘focus on a family matter,’” NBC News’s Marc Caputo tweeted. “But it was actually a domestic violence arrest. They said the same thing to fellow Democrats.”
“They knew @Fla_Pol would cover for them by laundering campaign statements instead of reporting facts,” DeSantis’s Rapid Response Director Christina Push noted. “The irony is that most people wouldn’t have blamed Crist for the actions of a now departed staffer — if he’d been up front about what happened instead of covering it up.”
They knew @Fla_Pol would cover for them by laundering campaign statements instead of reporting facts. The irony is that most people wouldn’t have blamed Crist for the actions of a now departed staffer — if he’d been up front about what happened instead of covering it up.
— Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) October 21, 2022
The shakeup in Crist’s campaign comes with less than three weeks until election day. Additionally, it comes as Crist is sinking in the polls in his effort to unseat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
A recent Sachs Media Group poll found that DeSantis has a double-digit lead over Crist.
DeSantis and Crist will meet for their first and only debate on October 24.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.
