Apple CEO Tim Cook has come out against President Donald Trump’s response to violence that occurred Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.
In an email to employees, Cook criticized Trump, who had said both sides at the Charlottesville rally were to blame for the violence, CNN reported.
While clashes were reported earlier in the day Saturday, the “Unite the Right” rally of white supremacists protesting the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue, turned deadly when a man ran his car into a group of counter-protesters. One woman was killed and 19 others were injured.
“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,” the email said, according to CNN.
Cook also announced to employees that Apple will donate $1 million each to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. He said that both groups are helping “to rid our country of hate.”
“What occurred in Charlottesville has no place in our country,” Cook said. “Hate is a cancer, and left unchecked it destroys everything in its path.”