With just under eight months to go before the presidential election, one member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet has resigned unexpectedly.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge announced Monday that she is resigning, effective later this month, and going home to Ohio.
“It’s time to go home,’’ Fudge said, according to USA Today.
“I do believe strongly that I have done just about everything I could do at HUD for this administration as we go into this crazy, silly season of an election,” she said.
“There just comes a time, and you know when that time is,” she said.
BREAKING: Biden’s cabinet secretary Marcia Fudge, steps down as U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary, citing the upcoming “crazy, silly” election as her reason for leaving the Biden admin. pic.twitter.com/0sWeYDFb2f
— The General (@GeneralMCNews) March 11, 2024
The former Democratic member of Congress said this is the end of the line for public service.
“Don’t look for me to ever be on another ballot or another appointee or anything like that,’’ she said. “I really do look forward to being a private citizen.”
Should Biden resign?
A report in Politico called her resignation “a surprising departure.”
Politico noted that only days ago, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said the entire Cabinet was made up of “people who are committed to this president.”
“So, yes, we have the team in place,” he said.
White House representative Olivia Dalton said Biden will nominate a successor. That may take some time, given that Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su has been an interim for months because she cannot get the votes to be confirmed as secretary of labor.
Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman will serve as acting secretary, according to the White House.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh left Biden’s Cabinet last year. Eric Lander, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, resigned in 2022.
In 2021, Fudge was found guilty of violating the Hatch Act, according to CNN. During a March news briefing, she was asked if Democrats could win the 2022 Senate race in Ohio.
“I think we have a good shot at it. I know people have written off Ohio. I haven’t written off Ohio. I believe we can win the Senate race,” she said, according to a White House transcript.
The Office of Special Counsel ruled that a violation of the Hatch Act, which bans partisan activities of federal employees during the conduct of their official duties.
