(Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin rejected calls from fellow graduates of Yale University for him to resign in protest against President Donald Trump’s comments following the deadly white nationalists rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“While I find it hard to believe I should have to defend myself on this, or the President, I feel compelled to let you know that the President in no way, shape or form, believes that neo-Nazi and other hate groups who endorse violence are equivalent to groups that demonstrate in peaceful and lawful ways,” Mnuchin, who is Jewish, wrote in a letter released by the Treasury Department late Saturday.
Almost 300 Yale alumni, including members of Mnuchin’s 1985 graduating class, signed the letter Friday telling the treasury secretary that he was “better than this” and calling on him to “do the right thing” by resigning.
“Our President deserves the opportunity to propose his agenda and to do so without the attempts by those who opposed him in the primaries, in the general election and beyond to distract the administration and the American people from these most important policy issues –- jobs, economic growth, and national security,” he wrote.
Trump had said after the rally, in which one counter-protester was killed, that violence was committed on “many sides” and some “very fine people” were among those protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
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