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Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar slammed CNN on Friday night time after the community reported he had resigned and was citing the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as a motive for his departure.
“Contrary to the @CNN chyron, I am still here serving the American people at HHS,” Azar wrote on Twitter after the community’s report. “I believe it is my duty to help ensure a smooth transition to President-elect Biden’s team during the pandemic and will remain as Secretary through January 20.”
In a separate tweet, Azar confirmed he had submitted a letter of resignation solely as a part of the routine preparations for a change of administration.
“I handed in my letter this week along with every other political appointee, effective January 20 at noon,” Azar writes, referring to the date and time that President-elect Biden is scheduled to take the oath of workplace.
Azar additionally launched a replica of his resignation letter, which is addressed to President Trump and dated Jan. 12. It states within the first paragraph that Azar deliberate his departure for Jan. 20.
“It has been the greatest professional privilege and honor of my life to serve as Secretary,” Azar writes to the president, “and I thank you for the opportunity to serve the American people.”
In reporting Azar’s departure plans, CNN’s Anderson Cooper described the secretary’s reference to the Capitol riot as a “swipe at President Trump.”
The secretary’s letter refers back to the Capitol riot as an occasion that threatens to overshadow the accomplishments of the Health and Human Services Department in addition to different branches of the Trump administration.
“Unfortunately, the actions and rhetoric following the election, especially during this past week, threaten to tarnish these and other historic legacies of this Administration,” Azar writes.
The secretary goes on to ask Trump to “condemn unequivocally any form of violence” and name for no disruption of the inaugural occasions set for subsequent week.
The letter lists HHS’s accomplishments as coping with “an unprecedented pandemic,” to which the division responded by bringing “therapeutics and vaccines to the American people in record time” by Operation Warp Speed.
Other accomplishments, he writes, have included “facilitating patient-centered healthcare markets, protecting life and lives, and promoting independence over dependence in our safety-net programs.”
In addition, he provides, regulatory reforms pursued by HHS helped save “billions of dollars and millions of hours of healthcare providers’ time.”
Azar additionally lists HHS initiatives to fight the opioid disaster and its effort to finish the unfold of HIV by 2030.
The secretary says that the quite a few challenges going through HHS – an company of some 85,000 workers — because it prepares for the change in administration was the explanation he decided “it is in the best interest of the people we serve to remain as Secretary until the end of the term.”
On Thursday, Azar launched timeline of U.S. actions to reply to the coronavirus pandemic, together with how the U.S. initially obtained details about the outbreak by contacts in Taiwan as an alternative of contained in the Chinese authorities.
“Being able to investigate the virus in January would’ve helped the United States and the world develop a science and data-driven response,” Azar mentioned. “Instead we were flying blind, with human-to-human transmission of the virus not officially confirmed until Jan. 20.”
Azar, 53, was confirmed by the Senate to turn out to be HHS secretary in January 2018 after being nominated by President Trump. Azar succeeded Tom Price, who had resigned from the place after going through criticism to be used of personal planes for journey throughout his official duties.
Azar’s previous positions have included being an govt for drugmaker Eli Lilly, serving as basic counsel and later deputy secretary at HHS through the George W. Bush administration and serving early in his profession as a clerk for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
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