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Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is revealing for the first time the extent of her revulsion at former President Donald Trump’s inability to ‘do what he could have done’ to try to counter the events of January 6th, she said in a new interview.
DeVos resigned her post on Jan. 7, 2020 – calling the riot the previous day and Trump’s rhetoric an ‘inflection point.’
Now in a new interview promoting a book, she says she discussed using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office – and says she faulted Trump for failing to ‘address the situation.’
She even raised the 25th Amendment issue directly with Vice President Mike Pence, who would have become temporary president had the amendment procedures actually been carried out.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos raised the 25th Amendment issue directly with Vice President Mike Pence after Jan. 6th, she said
‘When I observed what was happening that day, I thought about kids across the country and what they were seeing, and I just felt that there were things that the president could have done to stop the activity, to turn it back, to avoid all of the things that ensued,’ she said.
‘And it was just a bridge too far when he turned his back also on his vice president. And so I just, my job in Washington was done. I could do no more significant more on behalf of kids. And so that was the inflection point for me.’
‘And then when I saw what was happening on Jan. 6 and didn’t see the president step in and do what he could have done to turn it back or slow it down or really address the situation, it was just obvious to me that I couldn’t continue,’ she told USA Today in an interview.
Under the 25th Amendment, the executive officers can vote that a president is unable to perform their duties, and the vice president steps in temporarily
DeVos spoke hours before the prime time Jan. 6 hearing
She exited right after Transportation Sec. Elaine Chao, who is married to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
‘I was thinking about the kids I was there to represent, and what they are seeing and what they are taking away from this — it was not defensible in any way.’
‘The resignation came at a time when I knew my job was finished,’ she said, with a copy of her forthcoming book propped up in the background.
She said ‘more than a few people’ inside the White House had considered the 25th Amendment. Trump would spend weeks claiming election fraud, failed to participate in a transition for weeks, and skipped Joe Biden’s inauguration.
She says she spoke to Vice President Mike Pence, who Trump faulted for failing to show ‘courage’ by refusing to count votes certified by states.
‘I spoke with the vice president and just let him know I was there to do whatever he wanted and needed me to do or help with, and he made it very clear that he was not going to go in that direction or that path,’ she said.
‘I had conversations with a number of my colleagues,’ she said. ‘And then importantly I also spoke with the vice president.’
‘He made clear to me that that was not a direction that he was going to move in. When that was clear …that was not going to transpire, that was not going to happen. Those were really the conversations. I was intent on finding out what we needed to know and how we would proceed or not proceed on anything,’ she said.
There was reporting at the time that if skeptics within Trump’s cabinet quit en masse, it would remove the ability to try to use the 25th Amendment, which allows the cabinet to vote that the president is ‘unable to discharge the duties of his office,’ setting up a vote in Congress.
‘I spoke with colleagues. I wanted to get a better understanding of the law itself and see if it was applicable in this case. There were more than a few people who had those conversations internally,’ she said.
She also wrote about the episode in a book, ‘Hostages No More: The Fight for Education Freedom and the Future of the American Child.’
In it, she complains that Trump’s election overturn effort got in the way of acting on a school choice agenda.
‘It wasn’t about the election results. It was about the values and image of the United States. It was about public service rising above self. The president had lost sight of that,’ she wrote.
‘A lot of what happened after the election sort of put roadblocks in the way of doing any major additional work, so I really felt that everything I could accomplish in office had been accomplished based on that reality and that dynamic.’
Her resignation letter pointed to a break with Trump, even while praising his ‘many accomplishments.’
‘We should be highlighting and celebrating your Administration’s many accomplishments on behalf of the American people,’ she wrote. ‘Instead, we are left to clean up the mess cause by violent protestors overrunning the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to undermine the people’s business. That behavior 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.’
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