Fortune responds to Brandi Carlile dropping out of powerful women summit: 'We practice live journalism'
Singer Brandi Carlile dropped out of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C. because Trump's former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is participating in the event on Tuesday.
"Respectfully, I absolutely cannot support Kirstjen Nielsen having a voice among the most powerful and inspiring women in America," Carlile wrote on Twitter on Monday. "Her access to power is righteously over. I forgive her. I mean no direspect. I wish her well and hope that she comes to understand the error in her part of this shameful policy [family separation]."
Carlile described Nielsen as among "human rights violators and merit-based abusers of displaced people."
A spokeswoman for Fortune confirmed to FOX Business that Nielsen will still be interviewed Tuesday at the summit.
"We believe that the most powerful women in business, who also happen to be some of the most powerful women in the world, have strong views about how the U.S. Administration has handled its immigration policy," she said in a statement. "We sought out an opportunity to bring the woman who was effectively responsible for that policy to ask her tough questions publicly and on stage about that policy."
"We brought in Amna Nawaz from PBS NewsHour to do the interview with the clear understanding that this would be a no-holds-barred interview, and that there would be an opportunity for our MPW members to ask questions, as well," the spokeswoman said. "That's how we practice live journalism.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also dropped out of the summit last week.
Slate.com reported that Clinton removed herself from the three-day summit due to a scheduling conflict. An unnamed source told the publication that Clinton decided not to participate in an act of protest against former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who was also scheduled to speak.
Fox News' Daniel Wallace contributed to this report.