Brandi Carlile Pulls Out of D.C. Event in Protest of Ex-Homeland Security Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen
Brandi Carlile has pulled out of this week’s Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit due to the D.C. event’s inclusion of Kirstjen Nielsen, the former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary. “I don’t think that human rights violators and merit-based abusers of displaced people should be given a platform to ‘reimagine’ history,” Carlile wrote in a statement. “The atrocity of family separation at our Southern border needs to go down in history as one of the United States of America’s most merciless acts.” Carlile continued:
Respectfully, I absolutely cannot support Kirstjen Nielsen having a voice among the most powerful and inspiring women in America. Her access to power is righteously over. I forgive her. I mean no disrespect. I wish her well and hope that she comes to understand the error in her part of this shameful policy.
Find Brandi Carlile’s full statement below. Carlile joins Hillary Clinton and dream hampton (executive producer of Surviving R. Kelly) as women who recently pulled out of the event in protest of Nielsen.
Kirstjen Nielsen served as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary from December 2017 until April 2019. During her time as secretary, the Trump administration infamously enforced an immigration policy that led to the separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. In June 2018, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending the family separation policy.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
