Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at the 2019 Dreamforce conference in San Francisco on November 19, 2019.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with CBS This Morning that anyone with a role in the uprising last week should be held accountable at the US Capitol. Cook did not release President Donald Trump from the statement.
“I don’t think anyone is above the law,” Cook told CBS’s Gayle King in a clip that aired Tuesday. “I mean, this is the wonderful thing about our country, we are a rule of law. I think everyone who took part in it should be held accountable.”
Cook said the events were not something the country should just go out of, although he eventually said, “we need to move forward.”
“I do not think we should let it go,” Cook said. “I think it’s important to hold people accountable.”
Apple removed Parler, an alternative social media app, from the App Store on Saturday after finding it used to spread calls for violence following the Capitol riots, in violation of its rules against offensive content.
Cook maintained a relatively close but balanced relationship with Trump during his tenure. While Cook pursued key Trump policies as she decided to end DACA, the Obama-era program that protects some immigrants from deportation, and did a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in 2016, he managed to increase Trump’s support get if the leaders of many other Big Tech companies have.
The relationship likely paid off by allowing Apple to repatriate cash at lower tax rates and get its products exempt from tariffs on China-imported goods.
King said the interview with Cook was pre-planned to release a “big announcement” on Wednesday when the full interview airs. King said the announcement is not about a new product.
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