Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Thursday he has resigned his post as special U.S. envoy to Northern Ireland in response to the riot by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
“I called [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo last night to let him know I was resigning from that. I can’t do it. I can’t stay,” Mr. Mulvaney said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
He cited the chaos at the Capitol, where demonstrators were protesting the counting of the Electoral College results for President-elect Joseph R. Biden.
“We didn’t sign up for what you saw last night,” Mr. Mulvaney said. “We signed up for making America great again, we signed up for lower taxes and less regulation. The president has a long list of successes that we can be proud of.”
He said, “But all of that went away yesterday, and I think you’re right to ask the question as to ’how did it happen?’”
Mr. Mulvaney said that Mr. Trump is “not the same as he was eight months ago.”
“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,” Mr. Mulvaney said.
He joins a growing list of administration officials who have resigned in response to the storming of the Capitol. Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, first lady Chief of Staff Stephanie Grisham and deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews all resigned on Wednesday.
Mr. Mulvaney, a former House lawmaker from South Carolina, has been with the president from the beginning of the administration. He served as director of the Office of Management and Budget and head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.