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Apple To Donate $1 Million To Southern Poverty Law Center In Charlottesville’s Wake

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Robert Donachie Capitol Hill and Health Care Reporter
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Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced the company will donate $1 million to both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League in the wake of President Donald Trump’s comments following the Charlottesville, Va., protests.

Cook said that he will match Apple employees donations two-for-one to either of those groups or other human rights organizations through the end of September.

“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,” Cook wrote in a letter to Apple employees Wednesday. “As a company, through our actions, our products and our voice, we will always work to ensure that everyone is treated equally and with respect.”

Trump faced an onslaught of negative press and attacks from congressional Republicans Monday, who said the president did not do enough to specifically call out the perpetrators of the Charlottesville protests over the weekend. The protests ended in injuries and one death, after a car driven by a white supremacist barreled into a crowd Saturday afternoon during clashes between white supremacists, Black Lives Matter, Antifa and other groups.

The president said in the wake of the protests Monday that he condemned violence on “many sides,” but failed to call out white supremacist groups. Trump amended his comments Tuesday afternoon, saying that he thinks there is “blame on both sides.”

Trump’s responses Monday and Tuesday have not been enough to quell the backlash from media, congressmen and leaders in the business community.

The Apple CEO’s letter reportedly came only hours after chief executives from top U.S. companies dropped out of and eventually disbanded the president’s Manufacturing, Strategy and Policy Forum councils Wednesday afternoon in response to the president’s remarks.

Apple also withdrew its mobile payment system–Apple Pay–Wednesday from websites linked to white nationalists and other hate organizations.

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