Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Steven Terner MnuchinShutdown clash looms after Democrats unveil spending bill Lawmakers fear voter backlash over failure to reach COVID-19 relief deal United Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE said that he never considered resigning in response to President Trump's controversial comments blaming “many sides” for violence at a white supremacist rally this month in Virginia.

When asked about the Friday report that one of Mnuchin's colleagues, chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, had drafted a resignation letter before deciding to remain on board, Mnuchin distanced himself from that sentiment.

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“I put out an extensive statement earlier last week on my view of the situation. I think there's no question the president was not equating the hate groups who were peaceful, and under no circumstances was I going to resign,” Mnuchin said Friday at the White House's press briefing.

He went on to say that Cohn is “committed to being here and I couldn't be more excited about that.”

Mnuchin and other top Jewish officials like Cohn have faced significant criticism to speak out against Trump's remarks, made after a man linked to hate groups allegedly drove into a group of counterprotesters, killing one woman.

Almost 300 of Mnuchin's former classmates at Yale University posted an open letter to him online where they called on him to resign in response to Trump’s comments.

Mnuchin defended the president in a statement responding to that call, arguing that the classmates furthered several “misconceptions” and 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.”

But Cohn in an interview with Financial Times on Friday, published hours before The New York Times reported that Cohn had written a draft resignation letter in response to Trump's comments, said the administration should have spoken differently.

“This administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities,” he said.