Members of President Donald Trump's diversity council are remaining on the panel despite the resignations from other Trump councils in the wake of Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"I will be staying on the council as of right now. This is not about serving a president, this is about serving the 4.2 million Hispanic-owned firms that collectively contribute over $668 billion to our American economy," said Javier Palomarez, president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said Wednesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Pastor Darrell Scott, one of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump co-founders, defended the president Tuesday.
"We have Ku Klux Klan rallies for the last umpteen years in different American states, every year, that don't get this attention. They got this attention now because Trump is the president," Scott said on MSNBC Tuesday.
Business leaders exited Trump's business and manufacturing councils Wednesday, which led to the president disbanding the panels.
Palomarez, however, was critical of Trump's statements about the violence, in which the president said "both sides" bore some responsibility.
"A clear, unequivocal denunciation of white supremacy was the order of the day. The moment was upon the president—he failed it miserably," Palomarez said in the "Morning Joe" interview.
Critics have slammed the diversity council. "The concept looks good on paper, but I haven't seen any results," a Republican political analyst told The Hill.
"I honestly don't think they've done a damn thing, that's the problem. I don't know if they even meet. They're basically just doing window dressing and defending Trump, which is absurd," said Cristobal Alex, the president of Latino Victory, a progressive group to that promotes Latino participation in politics.
The membership of Palomarez on the council drew criticism, as well, since he was a Hillary Clinton supporter in the 2016 campaign, and called Trump a "payaso," Spanish for "clown," The Hill reported.
Palomarez could be reconsidering his membership.
"My shareholders, if you will, in my association, are asking me to stay this course. Now, that could change… as of right now, we have much to do and what I'm really disappointed by and fed up with is, once again, business has taken a backseat to bigotry," Palomarez said in The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday.
Alex questioned how much Palomarez could accomplish on the council since the business councils accomplished little.
"That's like the kid's table. The adult table was the leading CEOs in the country, and that's disbanded," Alex said in The Hill.