WASHINGTON (AP/WBOC)- Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is condemning the assault on the U.S. Capitol in his formal letter of resignation.
Azar, who grew up in Salisbury, Maryland, says he will resign at noon on Jan. 20, when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.
Azar wrote in his letter to President Donald Trump, dated Jan. 12: “The attacks on the Capitol were an assault on our democracy and on the tradition of peaceful transitions of power that the United States of America first brought to the world.”
He added: “I implore you to continue to condemn unequivocally any form of violence, to demand that no one attempt to disrupt the inaugural activities in Washington or elsewhere, and to continue to support unreservedly the peaceful and orderly transition of power on January 20.”
The two-page letter recited administration accomplishments that Azar said “the actions and rhetoric following the election ... threaten to tarnish.”
Azar, a lawyer by training, spent nearly a decade with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly before rising to president of its key U.S. affiliate. He left to start his own consulting firm prior to being sworn in as the 24th HHS secretary of Health and Human Services on Jan. 25, 2018. He is seen as an expert on government health care regulation.
