Heather Heyer Memorial – President Trump Disbands Two Advisory Councils (8-16-17)

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

President Trump announces he is disbanding both his jobs and manufacturing advisory councils. This comesafter multiple ceos quit the panels… following the President’s remarks at a combative news conference at Trump Tower during which he again blamed ‘both sides’ for the deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Virginia, and he referred to counter-protestors.. as the “alt-left”.

(UPDATE: According to the Associated Press, quoting four people familiar with the situation, the next day we learned that it wasn’t the President who dissolved the panels.  Members of the White House policy forum, which included executives from General Electric, Wal-Mart, General Motors, Boeing, IBM and JPMorgan Chase, chose to dissolve their advisory council themselves. The White House was phoned and Mr. Trump agreed that it was the right course of action.  He later tweeted that it was he who chose to disband his strategy forum and manufacturing jobs panel, “rather than putting pressure” on CEOs to stay.)

The memorial for the counter-protestor killed in a car attack was held on Wednesday, August 16th, 2017. Heather Heyer’s mother was among the speakers who called on others to carry on her daughter’s legacy of speaking out against injustice.

Audio includes reports from ABC’s Aaron Katersky & Tom Rivers.