WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Deputy Chief of Staff Thea Lee resigned on Tuesday from President Donald Trump's manufacturing council, slamming his remarks about protests in Virginia and saying he "tolerates bigotry and domestic terrorism."

The statement by the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the United States, cited Trump's remarks at a news conference earlier Tuesday in which he said both left- and right-wing groups were to blame for violence in Virginia after a white supremacist rally on Saturday.

"President Trump's remarks today repudiate his forced remarks yesterday about the KKK and neo-Nazis. We must resign on behalf of America’s working people, who reject all notions of legitimacy of these bigoted groups," Trumka and Lee said in a statement.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by David Alexander)