An administrative law judge recommended the Florida Department of Health reprimand and fine a nurse who posted a TikTok disparaging former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
In January 2026, Lexie Lawler, a labor and delivery nurse employed at the time by Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital, recorded a personal TikTok video in which she wished Leavitt, who was pregnant, a gruesome and difficult birth experience.
“As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Karoline Leavitt a fourth-degree tear,” Lawler said in her public video.
The video went viral after Chaya Raichik, a right-wing commentator who posts on social media under the moniker “Libs of TikTok,” disseminated it. Several Republican leaders also weighed in, including Uthmeier, who said: “The Florida Board of Nursing should yank this vile person’s license, immediately. She doesn’t belong anywhere near patients.”
Days later, DOH suspended her license with an emergency order for unprofessional conduct, which includes “using abusive, threatening or foul language in front of a patient or directing such language toward a patient.”
In his recommendation dated Sept. 1, Judge Robert Cohen with the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings said the Board of Nursing should reprimand Lawler, fine her $250, undergo continuing education to include a course on social media use and, if available, pay back the costs of investigation and prosecution of the case.
Julie Gallagher, Lawler’s attorney, told the News Service of Florida she would be filing exceptions to the recommended order.
“We’re disappointed in the decision because the rule she was charged under required the foul language to be said in front of the patient or directed at a patient, and no one who was a patient saw it, and in our view they didn’t prove she said those comments directed to a patient or in front of a patient,” Gallagher said.
