A third CEO has departed from Donald Trump’s American Manufacturing Council since the president’s sluggish disavowal of white supremacists in the aftermath of the Charlottesville attack on Saturday.
Brian Krzanich, Chief Executive Officer of the technology company Intel, stepped down from the council “to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues,” according to a press release issued Monday.
“I have already made clear my abhorrence at the recent hate-spawned violence in Charlottesville, and earlier today I called on all leaders to condemn the white supremacists and their ilk who marched and committed violence,” he said. “I resigned because I want to make progress, while many in Washington seem more concerned with attacking anyone who disagrees with them.”
Trump took two days to come out and unequivocally disavow white supremacy after a Nazi sympathizer drove into a crowd of counter-protestors and anti-fascists, killing 32-year old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. The president has received bipartisan condemnation for his slow—and seemingly forced—response.
Krzanich joins two other CEOs—Under Armour’s Kevin Plank and Merck & Co.’s Kenneth C. Frazier—in stepping down from the council following last weekend’s attack. Trump on Monday attacked Krzanich on Twitter for leaving the group of advisors.
“My request—my plea—to everyone involved in our political system is this: set scoring political points aside and focus on what is best for the nation as a whole,” Krzanich wrote in his press release. “The current environment must change, or else our nation will become a shadow of what it once was and what it still can and should be.”
