Alphonso David was fired by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) after it was revealed that he helped former Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-New York) respond to sexual misconduct allegations. David worked previously for Cuomo and continued assisting the governor.
"This conduct in assisting Governor Cuomo's team, while president of HRC, was in violation of HRC's conflict of interest policy and the mission of HRC," Morgan Cox and Jodie Patterson, Human Rights Campaign and Foundation Board chairs, said in a statement announcing David's removal as head of the organization.
The National Center for Public Policy Research did not call for David's resignation in particular, but it did confront five of the non-profit's biggest corporate sponsors.
"We sent them a demand letter saying, You can no longer in good conscience as a corporation fund an organization that has this type of leadership. This is morally bankrupt, it's reprehensible, and you're funding it," The National Center's Justin Danhof tells American Family News. "So we went sent letters to Apple, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Target, [and] American Express. And lo and behold -- Mr. David is no longer employed by the Human Rights Campaign."
While he did not identify which companies, Danhof said his organization has received communications saying that some of the ones contacted were looking into the matter, as they also had concerns.
"We'll take a short victory lap," he declares. "At the end of the day, the organization let David go because of (a) the reputational damage, but (b) the potential of financial damage to the organization stemming from that reputational damage."
Alphonso David has vowed to fight his termination.
