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Former Trump Aide Quits Diplomatic Post After Capitol Mayhem

VOA News

   Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney says he is quitting his
   diplomatic position, adding to a growing list of resignations from the
   Trump administration following Wednesday's deadly invasion of the U.S.
   Capitol building by supporters of President Donald Trump.
   Mulvaney announced Thursday he is resigning as special envoy to
   Northern Ireland and said other administration officials have
   considered stepping down.
   "I can't do it. I can't stay," Mulvaney said on CNBC. "Those who choose
   to stay, and I have talked with some of them, are choosing to stay
   because they're worried the president might put someone worse in."
   Mulvaney's resignation came after hundreds of Trump supporters broke
   into the Capitol as legislators were in the process of certifying
   Electoral College votes in the November election, formalizing
   President-elect Joe Biden's win.
   The president had urged his supporters to march on the building at a
   rally, asserting the election was stolen and saying, "You'll never take
   back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have
   to be strong."
   Four people died in the chaos, according to the Metropolitan Police
   Department in Washington.
   Mulvaney, also a former Office of Management and Budget director, said
   he informed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of his resignation Wednesday
   night.
   Shortly after Mulvaney's announcement, the Commerce Department's deputy
   assistant secretary for intelligence and security, John Costello, said
   the violence also prompted him to step down.
   "Yesterday's events were an unprecedented attack on the very core of
   our democracy -- incited by a sitting President," Costello said on
   Twitter. "The President has long disregarded and diminished the rule of
   law and the constitution. Yesterday, that culminated in violent
   sedition against the U.S. Congress for the purposes of overturning a
   legally recognized and valid election."
   A leading developer of Trump's China policy, Matt Pottinger, announced
   his resignation on Wednesday. A senior administration official said
   Pottinger stepped down in response to Trump's reaction to the mob of
   protesters at the Capitol.
   National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, Pottinger's boss, asked
   Pottinger to remain in the position to facilitate the transition to the
   new Biden administration but the official said Pottinger had "completed
   those tasks."

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