Two members of US Donald Trump’s Cabinet on Thursday resigned with days left in the administration in protest over the storming of the Capitol by a mob of the president’s supporters.
The education secretary and transportation secretary — the only two women in Trump’s inner Cabinet — both said they could no longer remain in office after the violent rampage on a ceremonial session of Congress that certified US president-elect Joe Biden’s victory on Wednesday.
Five people have died as a result of the melee, including a police officer, Brian Sicknick, who was injured “while physically engaging with protesters” during the riot, US Capitol Police said.
Photo: Reuters
“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,” said US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, a conservative stalwart who had served throughout the administration.
“Impressionable children are watching all this, and they are learning from us,” she said in a letter to Trump. “They must know from us that America is greater than what transpired yesterday.”
US Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao (趙小蘭), who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, earlier said that it was “a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the president stormed the Capitol Building following a rally he addressed.”
Photo: Reuters
“It has deeply troubled me in a way I simply cannot set aside,” she added.
Some of Trump’s critics do not give those in the early-exit caucus much credit for walking away from their jobs with less than two weeks left in the administration, seeing it as little more than a face-saving effort.
“Nobody is fooled by these last-second, come-to-Jesus conversions,” said Rick Wilson, cofounder of the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans fiercely critical of Trump.
Several Democratic lawmakers also dismissed the resignations as posturing.
“Rats leaving a sinking ship,” US Representative Jack Speier wrote on Twitter.
Democrats said that the secretaries should have instead worked to remove Trump from power under the US constitution’s 25th amendment, which allows a majority of the Cabinet to vote to remove the chief executive if he is deemed unfit to serve.
US Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, on Thursday urged “the good men and women honorably serving at all levels of the federal government to please stay at their post for the protection of our democracy.”
“The actions of a rogue president will not and should not reflect on you,” Manchin said. “Instead, your patriotism and commitment to the greater good of our country will be reaffirmed.”
US Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican, pleaded for those in the national security apparatus to stay in their positions.
“We need you now more than ever,” Graham said.
“To those who believe you should leave your post now to make a statement, I would urge you not,” he added.
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had a different strategy in mind.
They said they would move forward with an impeachment effort if US Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet failed to invoke the 25th amendment to oust Trump from office.
Trump in a video later on Thursday finally acknowledged that he would be leaving office on Jan. 20 and condemned the violence, but did not congratulate Biden.
Additional reporting by AP
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