The White House announced that President Trump pulled the nomination of Chad Wolf as secretary for the Department of Homeland Security an hour after the acting Cabinet official called on Trump to condemn Wednesday’s riot.
The White House announced the withdrawal in a statement issued late Thursday morning. Wolf, who has been traveling overseas in Cyprus all week, initially criticized the thousands of Trump supporters who besieged the U.S. Capitol Wednesday afternoon.
The White House said its decision to pull Wolf’s nomination was not related to his criticism of Trump and that it was a coincidence that it was announced shortly afterward.
“The withdrawal occurred yesterday and was not related at all to Wednesday’s events or the Acting Secretary’s comments this morning,” White House spokesman Judd Deere told the Washington Examiner Thursday afternoon. “Acting Secretary Wolf remains the acting secretary and continues to perform the duties of his office.”
Wolf said Thursday morning that Trump needed to take a harsher stance on the attack.
“What transpired yesterday was tragic and sickening. While I have consistently condemned political violence on both sides of the aisle, specifically violence directed at law enforcement, we now see some supporters of the President using violence as a means to achieve political ends,” Wolf said. “This is unacceptable. These violent actions are unconscionable, and I implore the President and all elected officials to strongly condemn the violence that took place yesterday.”
In a post on Wednesday afternoon, Wolf called on rioters to be held accountable but did not ask Trump to step in.
“Violence in any form is unacceptable. NO one has the right to attack ANY federal institution regardless of motivation,” Wolf wrote in a post to Twitter. “Violent opportunists at the US Capitol grounds must be held accountable. We have a proud history of resolving our differences through peaceful means.”
Wolf vowed to remain in his position on an acting basis until President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office in 13 days.
Wolf, 44, is the fifth person to lead the DHS under the Trump administration and has been in his position for 14 months. Trump nominated Wolf to head the 250,000-person department last August, but the Senate never voted to confirm him.
Wolf became acting secretary in November 2019, following the departure of acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan. He first came to the DHS in the early 2000s and worked at the department as it planned how to establish the Transportation Security Administration agency following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He moved to TSA and later to a public policy lobbying firm in Washington before rejoining TSA as chief of staff in 2017. Wolf shifted to DHS headquarters under Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who had worked with Wolf at TSA. Nielsen was DHS secretary prior to McAleenan and was chief of staff to Trump’s first DHS secretary, John Kelly.
Before he was shifted to acting secretary last year, Wolf was confirmed by the Senate as undersecretary for the DHS Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans.
He has broken with Trump several times, including when he said that white supremacists are the greatest threat to homeland security.
Wolf’s appointment to acting secretary was dubbed illegitimate by left-leaning organizations. Then, in November, a federal judge ruled that Wolf was illegally serving atop the DHS and that a rule he advanced last summer to suspend President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was invalid.
In August, the Government Accountability Office released a report that concluded Wolf was not the next person in line to take over when McAleenan left. Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, acting secretaries can only stand in the position for 210 days. McAleenan stepped down just before reaching the threshold.
However, Wolf was not the next person in line, according to the 2016 succession list. Nielsen secretly changed the succession order before leaving in April to allow Wolf, seen as a Trump loyalist, to later take over for McAleenan.
Wolf maintained that GAO’s claim that the DHS violated the federal law was “fundamentally erroneous.” GAO refused to amend its conclusion, but no action from the DHS inspector general followed.
Rob Crilly contributed to this report.
