Tim Cook Memo: 'I Disagree With the President'

Apple CEO denounces 'hate and bigotry' in response to Charlottesville
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 17, 2017 7:53 AM CDT
Tim Cook's Note on Charlottesville: 'Hate Is a Cancer'
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an announcement of new products at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Monday, June 5, 2017.   (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

The backlash against President Trump's inflammatory remarks on Charlottesville continues, including two White House business councils being shuttered after members started defecting. The latest voice to enter the mix: Apple CEO Tim Cook, who Wednesday sent a memo to employees decrying "hate and bigotry" in general, and Trump's take on things specifically, CNET reports. "What occurred in Charlottesville has no place in our country," Cook writes in the memo, also posted by Recode. "Hate is a cancer, and left unchecked it destroys everything in its path. Its scars last generations." He also takes issue that this is a partisan divide, noting that "it is about human decency and morality" and that we must, all together, be "unequivocal" about fighting hate.

As for Trump's "both sides" stance, in which he says both white supremacists and the "extremist" left were to blame for the Charlottesville violence, Cook writes: "I disagree with the president and others who believe that there is a moral equivalence between white supremacists and Nazis, and those who oppose them by standing up for human rights. Equating the two runs counter to our ideals as Americans." He ends the memo with a paraphrased MLK quote: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." Cook also says Apple will give $1 million each to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, as well as match employee donations to human rights groups on a two-to-one basis until Sept. 30, as well as roll out a process that allows users to give money to the SPLC via iTunes. Read Cook's full memo at Recode. (More Tim Cook stories.)

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