President Trump is facing heated criticism over not publicly condemning white nationalists for inciting this weekend’s bloody confrontation in Charlottesville, Va., but on Monday he criticized the head of Merck pharmaceuticals for quitting a federal panel in protest of Mr. Trump’s equivocal response to the violence.
Merck’s chief executive, Kenneth C. Frazier, resigned from the president’s American Manufacturing Council on Monday, saying he objected to the president’s statement on Saturday blaming violence that left one woman dead on “all sides.”
“America’s leaders must honor our fundamental views by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,” Mr. Frazier said in a tweet announcing he was stepping down from the panel.