Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao are “running away from their responsibility” by stepping down before invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office, House Majority Whip James Clyburn alleged Friday.
During an interview on CNN, the Democrat from South Carolina again called for cabinet members to band together and remove the president, saying the move was preferable to a second round of impeachment proceedings, Politico reported.
However, Clyburn also suggested Trump is unlikely to be removed from office through impeachment with less than two weeks until the end of his term, the article continued:
“No, I do not believe 13 or 14 days are enough to run that. But it’s sure enough for the vice president and the Cabinet members,” Clyburn said, before invoking DeVos and Chao.
“For two Cabinet members to resign, that says to me they are running away from their responsibility. If they feel that strongly, they would stay there and wait on this meeting so they can cast two of the votes that are necessary to invoke the 25th Amendment,” he said. “They are running away.”
DeVos resigned from her position on Thursday and “blamed Trump for inciting the violence on Capitol Hill after rallying with supporters in front of the White House to protest the 2020 election,” Breitbart News reported.
Chao also announced her resignation that will take effect Monday.
“Chao’s resignation follows the departures of Mick Mulvaney, special envoy to Northern Ireland, and deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger,” according to Breitbart News.
In December, Clyburn responded to Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential election results amid allegations of voter fraud, claiming he was trying to “overthrow our government.”
“You may not call it a coup, but this is an attempted coup,” he said during an interview on CNN.