The entirety of the President’s Committee On the Arts and Humanities tendered their resignation on Friday in protest of President Donald Trump’s qualified criticism of the violence in Charlottesville last weekend.
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16 of 17 members of the of the President’s Committee On the Arts and Humanities, cited the “false equivalence” of President Donald Trump’s comments about last weekend’s Charlottesville “Unite the Right” gathering as the reason to resign en masse, according to the Associated Press,
President Trump drew criticism from many observers last week after he failed to condemn white supremacists and Neo Nazi groups by name after violent clashes during demonstrations in Charlottesville left one woman dead and numerous injured.
Over the course of the week, two presidential advisory councils — the Strategic and Policy Forum, and the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative composed of prominent business leaders, disbanded after members left in protest.
Broadway director George C. Wolfe. did not sign the resignation letter from the Committee On the Arts and Humanities but said on Friday that he was resigning and his name would be added to the letter, the Associated Press reported.
The arts and humanities committee was first formed in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan and works to promote artistic endeavors in concert with government and private agencies.
Members of the committee include singer/songwriter Paula Boggs; actor/singer John Lloyd Young; and Vector OMG producer/talent manager Eric Ortner.
“Our job is to protect those who tell America’s story, we wanted to be on the right side of history,” Ortner told the Washington Post.