Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s first and only Education secretary and a longtime Michigan GOP donor and school choice advocate, on Thursday submitted her letter of resignation with less than two weeks before President-elect Joe Biden will take office.
This comes after a Trump mob ransacked the U.S. Capitol Wednesday as part of a GOP effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who’s married to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and other Trump officials have resigned following the insurrection.
In her letter, DeVos blamed Trump for the riot: “There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me.”
DeVos also wrote: “We should be highlighting and celebrating your administration’s many accomplishments on behalf of the American people. “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.”
During DeVos’ tenure, she pushed her agenda of funding private and charter schools and fought efforts to forgive student loans. She most recently lost a court case on her efforts to direct COVID-19 stimulus cash from public schools.
She’s a member of the West Michigan billionaire DeVos family, which has continued to give millions to GOP candidates in Michigan and across the country since Trump took office.
