Inside Higher Ed
by Kery Murakami
January 8, 2021
Education Secretary resigns, citing the role of Trump's "rhetoric" in violent protests at the U.S. Capitol building.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos resigned Thursday night in the wake of President Trump’s role in encouraging the storming of the Capitol by protesters on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal first reported.
The department confirmed her resignation.
"We should be highlighting and celebrating your administration's many accomplishments on behalf of the American people," she wrote in the resignation letter to Trump, which was obtained by Inside Higher Ed. "Instead we are left to clean up the mess caused by violent protesters 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."