Jeff Bezos says he wouldn't kick Peter Thiel off Amazon's board over political views

SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Peter Thiel's support of Donald Trump.

Speaking Thursday at Vanity Fair's New Establishment Summit in San Francisco, Bezos said that if Thiel, the prominent investor and Paypal cofounder who has been an outspoken Trump supporter, was on the board of Amazon, he wouldn't ask him to to step down over his political views.

"My view is that even though I would have a dramatically different opinion, I think that down that path of tying everything to everything lies madness," Bezos said.

"We don't want to live in a country where you can't associate with people who have wildly different political opinions than yourself. I can totally disagree with someone's politics and still work side by side with them."

Still, Bezos, who described Thiel as a "contrarian," made it clear he disagreed with Trump, saying he believed some of the candidate's comments "erodes democracy." "Saying that he may not give a graceful concession speech if he loses the selection, that erodes our democracy. Saying that he might lock up his opponent if he wins, erodes our democracy."

Speaking to an audience made up of investors and other prominent figures in Silicon Valley, Bezos' comments came days after Mark Zuckerberg again defended Thiel's place on Facebook's board. In an internal Facebook post for employees, Zuckerberg cited the importance of diversity saying, "we can't create a culture that says it cares about diversity and then excludes almost half the country because they back a political candidate."

Others in the valley have also had to grapple with the PayPal founder's political views. Earlier in the week, Sam Altman, who runs the influential startup incubator Y Combinator, said he wouldn't fire Thiel even though he disagreed with his political views, saying it would be a "dangerous path to start down."