A Florida nurse has been fired after posting a viral social media video wishing for President Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt to be seriously injured during childbirth.
The nurse, identified as Lexie Lawler, was let go from Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital after recording herself in a TikTok video saying she hopes Leavitt suffers a fourth-degree tear during childbirth with long-term complications.
Leavitt is currently expecting her second baby with husband Nicholas Riccio.
“As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Karoline Leavitt a fourth-degree tear,” Lawler said in the since-deleted TikTok, according to multiple outlets. “I hope that you fucking rip from bow to stern and never shit normally again, you cunt.”
A spokesperson for Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital later confirmed Lawler’s termination in a Jan. 23 statement to local news outlets WPTV and CBS 12.
“The comments made in a social media video by a nurse at one of our facilities do not reflect our values or the standards we expect of health care professionals,” the hospital spokesperson said. “Following a prompt review, the individual is no longer employed by our health system.”
The spokesperson added that though the hospital respects the right to personal opinions, “There is no place in health care for language or behavior that calls into question a caregiver’s ability to provide compassionate, unbiased care.”
Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer condemned Lawler’s comments in a post on X on Jan. 22.
Win McNamee via Getty Images
“I was in touch with hospital leadership as soon as I learned this afternoon and have been informed that this person is no longer employed there,” the spokesperson wrote alongside a clip of the nurse’s remarks. “These disgusting comments have no place in medicine or in our community.”
The White House and the Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital didn’t immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier urged the Florida Board of Nursing to revoke Lawler’s license in a statement to Fox News.
“Women shouldn’t have to worry about a politically-driven nurse who wishes them pain and suffering being in the delivery room during childbirth,” Uthmeier told the outlet.
He added, “It’s evil. The Florida Board of Nursing must take action to keep this person away from patients permanently.”
Lawler defended herself against critics in a separate video on Monday after her firing, according to People.
“So they just murdered a man in Minnesota,” she said in reference to ICU nurse Alex Pretti who was fatally shot on Saturday by Border Patrol agents.
Lawler added, “They murdered a man in Minnesota, and you motherfuckers are coming after me because I used bad language. Fuck you. I’m on the right side of this. Fuck you.”
