HHS Secretary Azar latest White House official to criticize Trump, plans to stick around to aid Biden transition

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is the latest Trump administration official revealed to have criticized the president's post-election actions.

Azar sent the White House a departure letter earlier this week, and while he clarified he'll continue in his role until Jan. 20, when President-elect Joe Biden assumes office, he had harsh words for President Trump, particularly concerning his role in the deadly riot at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6. "Unfortunately, these actions and rhetoric following the election, especially during the past week, threaten to tarnish these and other historic legacies of this administration," he wrote, referring to the rapid creation of two vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Azar said the riot was an "assault on our democracy and on the tradition of peaceful transitions of power" in the United States. Ultimately, though he stopped short of resigning. "With the pandemic raging, the continued need to deliver vaccines and therapeutics to the American people, and the imperative of ensuring a smooth transition to the Biden administration, I have determined that it is in the best interest of the people we serve to remain as secretary until the end of the term," he explained. Read more at The Hill. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.