AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka stepped down from his position in President Donald Trump’s manufacturing council today.
Why is this important? Well, for starters, Trumka is now the fifth executive to quit the council in a span of two days. Additionally, Trumka is the first executive to resign in the wake of the president’s press conference earlier today in which he once again stated that “both sides” were to blame for the violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“I cannot sit on a council for a president that tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism; I resign, effective immediately,” Trumka said on Twitter. Furthermore, the AFL-CIO president wrote a separate statement in which he explained why he and Thea Lee – his deputy chief of staff – were quitting: “President Trump’s remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday about the KKK and neo-Nazis. We must resign on behalf of America’s working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of these bigoted groups.”
As of right now, there are 20 executives left on Trump’s manufacturing council. However, they’re all starting to face tremendous pressure to distance themselves from the president. In fact, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said today that more executives should quit. “No adviser committed to the bipartisan American traditions of government can possibly believe he or she is being effective at this point. And all should feel ashamed for complicity in Trump’s words and deeds. I sometimes wonder how they face their children,” Summers said.
Featured Image: twitter
