US Health Secretary Alex Azar announced, Saturday, that he is going to resign at noon on Jan. 20, when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in, condemning Capitol riot in his resignation letter.
Azar stated on Twitter that he is “still here serving the American people at HHS,” in order to “help ensure a smooth transition to President-elect Biden’s team during the pandemic.”
Contrary to the @CNN chyron, I am still here serving the American people at HHS. I believe it is my duty to help ensure a smooth transition to President-elect Biden’s team during the pandemic and will remain as Secretary through January 20. pic.twitter.com/zXe1y2om1k
— Secretary Alex Azar (@SecAzar) January 16, 2021
Azar showed concern that last week’s siege in Washington and Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud “threaten to tarnish these and other historic legacies of this administration.”
“The attacks on the Capitol were an assault on our democracy and on the tradition of peaceful transitions of power that the United States of America first brought to the world,” Azar wrote in the two-page letter, dated 12 January.
“With the pandemic raging, the continued need to deliver vaccines and therapeutics to the American people, and the imperative of ensuring a smooth transition to the Biden Administration, I have determined that it is in the best interest of the people we serve to remain as Secretary until the end of the term,” he said in his letter addressed to Trump.
“I Implore you to continue to condemn unequivocally any form of violence, to demand that no one attempt to disrupt the inaugural activities in Washington or elsewhere and to continue to support unreservedly the peaceful and orderly transition of power on January 20, 2021,” he added.
In a tweet last week, the US Health and Human Services Secretary condemned the riot, saying he was “disgusted.”
I am disgusted by the attack on the Capitol we witnessed today. Physical violence and the desecration of this hallowed symbol of our democracy must end. People must immediately and peacefully disperse. pic.twitter.com/i2BfN3cWtJ
— Secretary Alex Azar (@SecAzar) January 6, 2021
“Physical violence and the desecration of this hallowed symbol of our democracy must end. People must immediately and peacefully disperse,” the US Health and Human Services Secretary said on Twitter.
