Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, citing his own Jewish heritage, said he understood the long history of violence and hatred against Jews and other minorities. | Susan Walsh/AP Photo Mnuchin, facing calls for resignation, defends Trump

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Saturday defended President Donald Trump and called out his critics amid growing condemnation of the president's response to racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend.

"I don’t believe the allegations against the president are accurate," Mnuchin said in a statement. "I believe that having highly talented men and women in our country surrounding the president in his administration should be reassuring to you and all the American people."


Earlier this week, a group of Mnuchin's fellow Yale alumni drafted a letter saying it was his "moral obligation" to resign "in protest of President Trump’s support of Nazism and white supremacy." Trump was criticized after the Charlottesville incident for saying "both sides" were to blame for the unrest.

Mnuchin on Saturday condemned the actions of "those filled with hate and with the intent to harm others."

Citing his own Jewish heritage, he said he understood the long history of violence and hatred against Jews and other minorities.

"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," he said.

Mnuchin said he was "familiar with the culture wars being fought in our country."

"Some of these issues are far more complicated than we are led to believe by the mass media, and if it were so simple, such actions would have been taken by other presidents, governors, and mayors, long before President Trump was elected by the American people," he said.

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Mnuchin then went after Trump's critics.

"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 said.