Chad Wolf to step down as Acting U.S. Homeland Security chief

Monitoring Desk

The Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security will step down. The announcement comes days after the US Capitol violence that left five people dead.

Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf will resign on Monday, a senior official said, days after he criticized US President Donald Trump over the Capitol riots last week.

“I am stepping down as your Acting Secretary,” Wolf said in a statement to the DHS staff. “Unfortunately, this action is warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting Secretary.”

Wolf is the third person from Trump’s cabinet to resign after supporters of the president stormed the Capitol building in a mob attack last week that left five people dead.

Here’s a list of the other members of the Trump administration who have resigned since the riot:

• Elaine Chao, Transportation Secretary
• Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary
• Matthew Pottinger, Deputy National Security Advisor
• Eric Dreiband, Assistant Attorney General
• Mick Mulvaney, Special Envoy for Northern Ireland
• Stephanie Grisham, First Lady’s Chief of Staff
• Chris Ford, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation
• Elinore McCance-Katz, Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Mental Health and Substance Use
• Hunter Kurtz, Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
• Sarah Mathews, Deputy White House Press Secretary
• John Costello, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Security, Commerce Department
• Tyler Goodspeed, Acting Chairman of White House Council of Economic Advisers
• Rickie Niceta, Social Secretary
• Ryan Tully, Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs of the National Security Council

Wolf’s resignation comes a day before Trump’s scheduled visit to the US-Mexico border wall.

Last week, Wolf had called on Trump and all elected officials to denounce the riots in the nation’s capital. “We now see some supporters of the President using violence as a means to achieve political ends. This is unacceptable,” he said in a tweet on Thursday.

The same day, Trump withdrew Wolf’s nomination to become the permanent head of the DHS. The White House said the decision to pull support was unrelated to his comments.  

Wolf has served as acting secretary of the DHS since November 2019. During his term, he oversaw the federal response to the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in cities across the US last year.

Wolf will be replaced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Peter Gaynor as the next Acting Secretary until President-elect Joe Biden’s administration takes over on January 20.

Courtesy: DW