Daniel Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley, resigned on Wednesday from his position as the State Department’s science envoy in spectacular fashion.
Kammen wrote a resignation letter that included a special message: The first letter of each paragraph spells out “IMPEACH.”
Mr. President, I am resigning as Science Envoy. Your response to Charlottesville enables racism, sexism, & harms our country and planet. pic.twitter.com/eWzDc5Yw6t
— Daniel M Kammen (@dan_kammen) August 23, 2017
Kammen decided to walk away from his position, to which he was appointed in February 2016, after President Donald Trump’s disastrous and harmful response to the white supremacist led in Charlottesville.
“Your failure to condemn white supremacists and neo-Nazis has domestic and international ramifications,” Kammen said.
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“Particularly troubling to me is how your response to Charlottesville is consistent with a broader pattern of behavior that enables sexism and racism, and disregards the welfare of all Americans, the global community and the planet,” he continued.
He also criticized the president for pulling out of the Paris Accord, and his decision to “undermine energy and environmental research.”
Trump claimed that there was violence on “many sides,” and then waited days before condemning the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists, walking away from the podium and ignoring questions from the press as to why it took him so long to get around to the denunciation.
On Tuesday night in Phoenix, Trump tried to recast his response to Charlottesville as less divisive than it was, while delivering yet another controversial speech that has done anything but unify the country.
The resignation is similar to the one crafted by members of the President’s Committee on Arts and the Humanities, who resigned en masse. The first letter of each paragraph of their resignation letter spelled out “RESIST.”
