Donald Trump finally denounces racism, but too late for some CEOs
Two CEOs of major American companies have quit an advisory council over President Donald Trump’s response to the Charlottesville clashes, even after he bowed to mounting pressure and denounced neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacists and all hate groups.
The CEO of sportswear firm Under Armour, Kevin Plank and Intel’s Brian Krzanich joined Kenneth Frazier, the African American CEO of Merck Pharma, who was the first to quit the American Manufacturing Council earlier on Monday, saying hate groups must be rejected “clearly”.
Trump issued a clearer denunciation than his earlier attempts: “Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”
“Anyone who acted criminally in this weekend’s racist violence, you will be held fully accountable. Justice will be delivered.”
But that was clearly not enough for the CEOs. “Under Armour engages in innovation and sports, not politics,” Plank said in a statement.
Krzanich said: “I resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues, including the serious need to address the decline of American manufacturing.”
There were statements from other business leaders as well — including Stephen A Schwarzman, the CEO of the private equity firm, the Blackstone Group, and a close adviser of Trump, but no one else had gone as far as the three who quit the advisory panels.
Trump had resisted calls to name and criticise the hate groups for two days after the clashes that claimed the lives of three people, including a 32-year old woman killed by a car that plowed through protestors, with a 20-year-old white supremacist allegedly at the wheel.
Critics argued it was important for Trump to say those words and denounce the hate groups because many of their members had supported and voted for him, and felt emboldened by his election to assert themselves more belligerently than rarely before.
In his first response, Trump vaguely condemned violence and called for peace and unity in a tweet. In his second, brief remarks, he came out blaming “many sides and not the hate groups that had been widely blamed for starting the clashes.
Critics and allies, including leading Republican lawmakers, publicly called on him to issue a more unequivocal denunciation.
Ivanka Trump, his daughter, named the hate groups in a tweet on Sunday: “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-Nazis.” Trump held out for another day amid criticism, this time from the business community.