Hundreds of employees call on Simon & Schuster to cut ties with Trump-linked authors

Hundreds of Simon & Schuster employees on Monday called on the publisher to halt its relationships with former members of the Trump administration, including canceling a two-book deal with former Vice President Mike Pence.

A petition, first reported last week, has now been signed by 216 employees. It was delivered internally to Simon & Schuster leadership on Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The company’s CEO rejected the employees’ demands in a letter last week after news of the petition was first reported, and the company declined to comment further on Monday.

“As a publisher in this polarized era, we have experienced outrage from both sides of the political divide and from different constituencies and groups,” CEO and president Jonathan Karp wrote in a letter to employees last week.

“But we come to work each day to publish, not cancel, which is the most extreme decision a publisher can make, and one that runs counter to the very core of our mission to publish a diversity of voices and perspectives. We will, therefore, proceed in our publishing agreement with Vice President Mike Pence,” Karp added.

Despite those words, Simon & Schuster earlier this year canceled plans to publish Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech.” It made that decision after Hawley voted to reject the Electoral College results in the state of Pennsylvania after a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

“After witnessing the disturbing, deadly insurrection that took place on Wednesday in Washington, DC, Simon & Schuster has decided to cancel the publication of Sen. Josh Hawley’s forthcoming book,” the company said at that time.

Simon & Schuster also said earlier this month that it would not be involved in efforts to publish a book authored by one of the officers involved in the police raid that killed Breonna Taylor in Kentucky last year.