RESIGNATIONS FROM TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Betsy DeVos resigns as Education Secretary
BY JOSEPH CHOI
SEE: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/533281-betsy-devos-resigns-as-education-secretary;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos tendered her resignation to President Trump on Thursday, making her the latest in a line of senior officials to exit following the riot at the Capitol on Wednesday.
In her resignation letter, DeVos cited the Capitol breach carried out by violent pro-Trump supporters as an “inflection point.”
DeVos is the second White House Cabinet member to resign due to the Capitol breach. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao tendered her resignation on Thursday, directly citing the events that occurred at the Capitol.
"We should be highlighting and celebrating your Administration's many accomplishments on behalf of the American people," DeVos wrote to Trump. "Instead, we are left to clean up the mess caused by violent protestors overrunning the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to undermine the people's business. That behavior was unconscionable for our country. There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me."
"Impressionable children are watching all of this and they are learning from us," she continued. "I believe we each have a moral obligation to exercise good judgment and model the behavior we hope they would emulate. They must know from us that America is greater than what transpired yesterday.
"To that end, today I resign from my position effective Friday, January 8, in support of the oath I took to our Constitution, our people, and our freedoms. Holding this position has been the honor of a lifetime, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to serve America and her students," DeVos concluded.
During her time as education secretary, DeVos has faced a great deal of controversy, much of it stemming from her lack of experience in education. Before Trump tapped her for the position, she had been a major donor to Republican campaigns.
DeVos on Monday sent a letter to Congress as one of her last acts as secretary making a case to expand federal tax dollars going to private schools, a cause DeVos supported long before she became education secretary.
During a virtual meeting in December, DeVos reportedly told Department of Education staffers to "resist" the incoming Biden administration.
"Let me leave you with this plea: Resist,” DeVos said. “Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what’s right for students. In everything you do, please put students first — always.”
Updated: 9:32 p.m.
Brett Samuels contributed.
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Transportation Secretary Chao resigns in protest
BY REID WILSON
SEE: https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/533167-transportation-secretary-chao-resigns-in-protest;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao will resign in protest after a violent mob overran the Capitol after being incited by President Trump, a source with knowledge of her decision said Thursday.
Chao would become the first Cabinet official, and the highest-ranking member of the administration, to resign in the wake of Trump’s incendiary rally and its violent aftermath on Wednesday.
“Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the President stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed,” Chao wrote in a letter to Transportation Department staff, obtained by The Hill. “As I’m sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside.”
Her exit is a sharp rebuke of a president who has alienated even some of his closest supporters with his increasingly unhinged rhetoric. Chao has served as Transportation secretary since Trump’s inauguration. She served as Labor secretary for eight years under President George W. Bush.
Chao is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who spent much of Wednesday locked in an undisclosed and secure location under armed guard as Trump-backing rioters marauded through the Capitol.
In her letter to employees, Chao said she would resign effective Monday. She said her team would continue assisting President-elect Joe Biden’s Transportation secretary-designate, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, with the transition.
Chao’s exit will absolve her of uncomfortable questions over whether she would join any effort to remove President Trump from office two weeks before his term expires by invoking the 25th Amendment, which allows the majority of the Cabinet to replace a president with the vice president.
Her departure will anger those who wanted the Cabinet to take the historic step of replacing Trump with Vice President Pence. But Chao’s resignation is not effective until Monday, which could give Cabinet members time to organize their vote.
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Capitol Police chief announces resignation after pro-Trump riots
BY CRISTINA MARCOS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said Thursday that he will resign later this month after his police force failed to contain mobs who tried to prevent Congress from ratifying President-elect Joe Biden's victory.
His resignation letter came hours after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called for him to step down.
Sund will have only been on the job for about seven months when he resigns effective Jan. 16. He made no mention in the letter of Wednesday's riots in the Capitol, but noted he will transition into a "sick leave status" starting Jan. 17 until he uses up his available sick leave balance of about 440 hours.
"It has been a pleasure and true honor to serve the United States Capitol Police Board and the Congressional community alongside the men and women of the United States Capitol Police," Sund wrote to the other members of the Capitol Police Board.
Other members of the Capitol Police Board are also resigning or are under pressure to follow suit.
Pelosi announced Thursday that the House sergeant at arms, Paul Irving, had tendered his resignation. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) also said Thursday that he would fire the Senate sergeant-at-arms, Michael Stenger, when Democrats take over the majority later this month.
Irving has served in his role since 2012.
"I think we have to have a full review," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol earlier Thursday. "What was underestimated? That the president of the United States would not be as inciteful? Perhaps somebody thought for a moment that he would be patriotic before he leaves office for just this once."
A 35-year-old woman participating in the violent riots was shot by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to force her way toward the House chamber. Glass panels adorning the Speaker's Lobby — where she was trying to enter — are now cracked and broken due to the mob.
Sund said in a statement Thursday that the officer involved has been placed on administrative leave and is under investigation.
Sund also said that more than 50 Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police officers were injured, including several who were hospitalized with serious injuries.
Most of the insurrectionists were not wearing masks despite the COVID-19 pandemic and attacked police officers with metal pipes and chemical irritants.
The Capitol Police said earlier this week that it would have additional personnel on duty Wednesday in anticipation of demonstrations over Congress meeting in a joint session to formally certify the Electoral College votes.
But the Capitol Police were vastly overwhelmed by the raging mob. The D.C., Virginia and Maryland National Guard and state troopers were all called in to help contain the terror attack and it took about four hours to clear the Capitol complex.
Sund said in the earlier statement Thursday that the Capitol Police is conducting a "thorough review" of Wednesday's security planning and procedures but defended his force's actions.
"Maintaining public safety in an open environment – specifically for First Amendment activities – has long been a challenge. The USCP had a robust plan established to address anticipated First Amendment activities. But make no mistake – these mass riots were not First Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior. The actions of the USCP officers were heroic given the situation they faced, and I continue to have tremendous respect in the professionalism and dedication of the women and men of the United States Capitol Police," Sund said.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Administration Committee, said that she had been misled about the state of preparedness in a briefing with Sund and House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving earlier in the week.
"We were told that was all in place and there was no doubt completely able to keep us secure in the Capitol," she said, specifying that she had been told that the coordination with the National Guard was ready to go.
"Well, that was not correct. Not only were they not prepared, what they told me about the National Guard was just not true. The guard was not even activated," she said.
Lofgren also indicated that President Trump was slow to react to requests to mobilize the National Guard, an issue that normally falls to governors, but rests on the commander-in-chief when it comes to the District of Columbia.
A call from Congress's bipartisan leaders, she said, was necessary to get the Defense Department to mobilize the National Guard.
Niv Elis contributed.