Brewer defends Trump:

Exgovernor says she didn’t have a problem with this week’s controversial remarks.

Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, in an appearance on CNN Tuesday evening, defended President Donald Trump’s contention Tuesday that many of those who opposed the white-supremacist groups staging a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday are equally to blame for the violence that erupted during the event.

Brewer, who supported Trump’s presidential run, was asked by CNN host Don Lemon whether she was ashamed at the president’s comments made at a press conference Tuesday, where he doubled down on his initial remarks suggesting that counterprotesters who stood up to the racist groups were equally responsible for the violence that unfolded.

“No. Absolutely not. I was not ashamed. I think he took the bull by the horns, he spoke from his heart,’’ she said on the nationally televised broadcast. “He has denounced the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazis. He has done it over and over, and David Duke. But you keep reporting he hasn’t done it.”

When Lemon suggested that Trump only named the groups in a prepared statement Monday “under duress’’ after fallout from his initial response on Saturday, Brewer said there was nothing wrong with what he said in his first statement.

“I thought his speech on Saturday was fine,” she said. “I thought the one on Monday was terrific. I thought today he came forward and spoke from his heart. He doesn’t want this. We need to bring our country together.’’

She denounced the KKK and described what happened in Charlottesville as “horrible,’’ but then added, “The fact of the matter is, there were groups there to the far left, and to the far right.’’

Brewer appeared with CNN political commentator and Republican Ana Navarro, who angrily ripped Trump for his remarks and Republicans who had been hesitant to criticize him, while lashing out at those who continue to defend him.

“I think that Trump apologists are going to justify and pretend that things he says, and that they’re seeing him say, did not happen,’’ Navarro said.

Pressed again by Lemon on Trump’s remarks about the Charlottesville violence, Brewer said: “From everything I heard, I don’t have a problem with it. “