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Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao Resigns, Citing Violence At Capitol

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao looks on as President Donald Trump speaks following a meeting on infrastructure at Trump Tower in August 2017.
Drew Angerer
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Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao looks on as President Donald Trump speaks following a meeting on infrastructure at Trump Tower in August 2017.

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced she is resigning, citing the "traumatic and entirely avoidable" violence at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Her resignation will be effective next Monday.

In a letter to colleagues, Chao said, "It has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside."

Chao is the highest-ranking member of President Trump's administration yet to resign following the deadly mob violence at the Capitol, fueled by Trump's own support of the crowd gathering in protest of his election loss.

In resigning, Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, joins others in Trump's orbit who are leaving the administration: Stephanie Grisham, chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump; Sarah Matthews, a deputy press secretary; and Matt Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser.

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Alana Wise joined WAMU in September 2018 as the 2018-2020 Audion Reporting Fellow for Guns & America. Selected as one of 10 recipients nationwide of the Audion Reporting Fellowship, Alana works in the WAMU newsroom as part of a national reporting project and is spending two years focusing on the impact of guns in the Washington region.
Alana Wise
Alana Wise is a politics reporter on the Washington desk at NPR.