Education Secretary Betsy DeVos submitted her resignation to President Trump on Thursday night, becoming the second member of Mr. Trump’s cabinet to resign since pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.
“We should be highlighting and celebrating your Administration’s many accomplishments on behalf of the American people,” Mrs. DeVos wrote in a letter to the president.
“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.”
She added: “Impressionable children are watching all this, and they are learning from us.”
The resignation is effective Friday.
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said earlier Thursday she would resign effective Jan. 11, citing the “entirely avoidable” storming of the Capitol building by pro-Trump supporters.