Mnuchin’s former Yale classmates ask him to resign from Treasury
Two hundred and ninety-three members of the Yale class of 1985 have signed a letter requesting that their former classmate, Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin, immediately resign from his job.
The letter claimed that President Trump has aligned himself with white supremacist fringe groups when he blamed "both sides" for the violence that erupted in the Charlottesville protests last week.
"We call upon you, as our friend, our classmate, and as a fellow American, to resign in protest of President Trump's support of Nazism and white supremacy. We know you are better than this, and we are counting on you to do the right thing," it read.
The letter to Mnuchin was posted at lettertostevemnuchin.com. It included long rows of classmates' virtual signatures, along with the resignation request.
"President Trump has declared himself a sympathizer with groups whose values are antithetical to those values we consider fundamental to our sacred honor as Americans, as men and women of Yale, and as decent human beings," the letter stated. "President Trump made those declarations loudly, clearly, and unequivocally, and he said them as you stood next to him."
Later on, a line is drawn in the letter between traditional policy disputes and concerns about appeasing hate groups.
"We can disagree on the means of promoting the general welfare of the country, on the size and role of government, on the nature of freedom and security, but we cannot take the side of what we know to be evil," it read.
The letter also recognized the rare occasion of having to ask a former classmate to resign from a cabinet post.
"We understand that graduates of Yale College have served the United States proudly as presidents, members of the cabinet, and in many other capacities since its founding, and that rarely, if ever, have any of us made such a request of a classmate, whatever our differences in political opinion have been," the letter read.
