TALLAHASSEE — An administrative law judge has recommended the Florida Department of Health reprimand and fine a nurse who posted a TikTok disparaging former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
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In January 2026, Lexie Lawler, a labor and delivery nurse in Boca Raton, recorded and posted on TikTok a 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 Attorney General James 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.”
At the time, Lawler was employed by Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital, but lost her job due to the suspension of her license. In the 12 years she’s been a licensed registered nurse, she had never been disciplined by the Board of Nursing, the order states.
In his Sept. 1 recommended order, 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.
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In his recommendation, Cohen wrote Lawler “has learned from this experience, a costly one in terms of her losing her employment of many years with Baptist Health,” and therefore “a penalty at the low end of the range should be imposed.”
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.
Cohen, however, said “it would be absurd” to interpret the rule in a way that requires the statement must be said personally in front of a patient, and Lawler was “hiding behind the internet.”
Posting the video privately or sending it to close family and friends would have changed the complexion of the case, Cohen added.
“As an experienced labor and delivery nurse, she knew exactly what she was wishing upon Ms. Leavitt, and it was something pretty horrific for any woman experiencing labor and delivery, whether the White House press secretary or a regular mom presenting herself to a hospital hoping and praying for a routine and uneventful labor and delivery,” Cohen wrote.
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