Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is defending President Trump’s response to the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, and rejecting calls from a group of his Yale University classmates that he resign from the administration in protest.

In a statement issued by the Treasury Department, Mnuchin says “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 says that “as someone who is Jewish, I believe I understand the long history of violence and hatred against the Jews” and other minorities.

Mnuchin’s statement was in response to a letter signed by more than 300 Yale alums urging Mnuchin to resign. Mnuchin graduated from Yale in 1985.

(AP)