WASHINGTON: Two of the US Cabinet members -- Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transport Secretary Elaine Chao -- have resigned over the storming of the Capitol by President Donald Trump's supporters.
DeVos, whose resignation comes into effect on Friday, said the insurrection on Capitol Hill was an "inflection point" for her, while Chao said she was deeply troubled by the violence.
Chao's resignation will come into effect on Monday.
In her resignation letter to President Trump on Thursday, DeVos said, "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 US Capitol in an attempt to undermine the people's business."
"That behaviour 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 said, adding that impressionable children are watching all this, and they are learning from us.
Earlier in the day, Transport Secretary Chao also announced her resignation.
In an email to her staffers on Thursday afternoon, Chao said, "Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the President stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed. As I'm sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside."
DeVos and Chao join a growing exodus of officials in the final days of the Trump administration A day earlier a number of senior White House staffers resigned over the Capitol Hill violence.
They include US Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger, first lady Melania Trump's chief of staff Stephanie Grisham, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews and White House social secretary Rickie Niceta.
Mick Mulvaney, the US special envoy for Northern Ireland and the former acting White House chief of staff, also resigned.
"I can't stay here. Not after yesterday," he told the CBS news.
Among others who submitted their resignations on Thursday were Tyler Goodspeed, the acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors; and John Costello, deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and security at the Commerce Department.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Capitol Police are reporting that Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick has died due to injuries sustained while on-duty during the Wednesday riots at the Capitol.
The report said Sicknick was responding to the riots , at the U.S. Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. The death of Officer Sicknick will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the Capitol Police and federal investigatorss.
Democratic leaders of the House Appropriations Committee said the “tragic loss” of a Capitol police officer “should remind all of us of the bravery of the law enforcement officers who protected us, our colleagues, Congressional staff, the press corps and other essential workers″ during the hourslong takeover of the Capitol by pro-Trump protesters.
(With PTI and AP Inputs)