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Trump announces end to manufacturing council amid resignations
By Adam Kelsey
Aug 16, 2017, 2:00 PM ET
PHOTO: President Donald Trump, left, speaks during a meeting with manufacturing executives at the White House in Washington, D.C., including Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, center, and Ford CEO Mark Fields, Feb. 23, 2017.PlayEvan Vucci/AP, File
WATCH Trump lashes out at 'alt-left' in Charlottesville
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After several business leaders announced their resignations from the White House's American Manufacturing Council in recent days, President Donald Trump announced he was ending the panel Wednesday, along with the separate Strategic and Policy Forum.
"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both," wrote Trump on Twitter. "Thank you all!"
Eight members of the American Manufacturing Council dropped from the panel following Trump's response to last weekend's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. A ninth, Greg Hayes of United Technologies, announced his resignation just minutes after the president's tweet.
On Saturday, Trump received widespread criticism over his perceived weak response to a white nationalist rally in the central Virginia city which resulted in the death of a counter-protester struck by a vehicle. The president repeated sentiments Tuesday that he first expressed over the weekend when he said at a Trump Tower press conference that there was "blame" "on both sides" of Saturday's protests.
Business leaders continue to resign from manufacturing council amid Trump criticism
Trump: CEOs leaving advisory council 'out of embarrassment'
The American Manufacturing Council was established in January and featured 28 members at its start. Tesla CEO Elon Musk left the group in June in response to Trump's decision to remove the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord, the most recent resignation of a sitting CEO prior to that of Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of Merck who was the first to drop out this week.
The Strategic and Policy Forum, an additional group of business people advising the president, was considering disbanding prior to Trump's announcement, according to a report by The New York Times. The newspaper reported that several members spoke via conference call Wednesday morning to discuss the panel's future, a conversation rendered moot by the president's tweet.
In a joint statement, members of the Strategic and Policy Forum appeared to cast the decision to disband as a mutual one.
"As our members have expressed individually over the past several days, intolerance, racism and violence have absolutely no place in this country and are an affront to core American values," the statement reads in part. "... We believe the debate over Forum participation has become a distraction from our well-intentioned and sincere desire to aid vital policy discussions on how to improve the lives of everyday Americans. As such, the President and we are disbanding the Forum."
Trump was defiant in the wake of the resignations from the manufacturing council Tuesday, writing on Twitter that "for every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place," and labeling those who had departed -- numbering four at the time -- "grandstanders."
In addition to Frazier and Hayes, the leaders to announce their resignations from the manufacturing council this week prior to Trump's announcement were: Kevin Plank of Under Armour, Brian Krzanich of Intel, Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Richard Trumka and Thea Lee of the AFL-CIO, Inge Thulin of 3M and Denise Morrison of the Campbell Soup Company.
ABC News' Jordyn Phelps contributed to this report.
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Bushes 'pray for Charlottesville' and 'reject racial bigotry'
By Meghan Keneally
Aug 16, 2017, 12:31 PM ET
PHOTO: Former President George H.W. Bush posted this photo on April 20, 2017, with his son, former president George W. Bush, at Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas.PlayTwitter/GeorgeHWBush
WATCH Mother of woman killed in Charlottesville: 'This is just the beginning of Heather's legacy'
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Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush released a joint statement today in response to racial tensions sparked by the violence this weekend during protests over a Confederate monument in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism and hatred in all forms," the statement, released Wednesday, said.
"As we pray for Charlottesville, we are reminded of the fundamental truths recorded by that city's most prominent citizen in the Declaration of Independence: We are all created equal and endowed by our creator with unalienable rights," the statement continued. "We know these truths to be everlasting because we have seen the decency and greatness of our country."
The Bushes are the only living former presidents who are Republicans.
Trump's remarks about the melee in Charlottesville
Trump lashes out at 'alt-left' in Charlottesville, says 'fine people on both sides'
Democratic former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama posted statements on Twitter on Saturday, Aug. 12, when much of the violence took place.
Clinton tweeted first, writing, "Even as we protect free speech and assembly, we must condemn hatred, violence and white supremacy. #Charlottesville."
Obama shared a quote from Nelson Mandela over the course of three tweets, the first of which is now the most liked tweet in the history of Twitter.
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite," the quote reads.
The only living former president who has not publicly addressed the matter is 92-year-old Jimmy Carter, a Democrat.
President Donald Trump has spoken repeatedly about Charlottesville, and some of his comments have prompted widespread criticism.
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