CHARLES HURT: The problem inside the beltway, everything is political. Everything is politics. The reason that these -- I would argue that one of the reasons that a lot of people jumped on the president as quickly as they did is because people in both parties, they don't particularly like him. [Sen.] Lindsey Graham doesn't like Donald Trump. They're looking for reasons to jump on him about stuff. But another group of people that I think deserve considerable blame in all this is the media. And when the media goes in and gives David Duke millions and millions of dollars of free air time on television, who cares what this guy thinks? He is a dirt bag. Ignore him. He'll go away if the lights aren't on, if the cameras aren't rolling, he gets no attention. But the media can't -- and they love the divisiveness. And they go in there and they try to -- it's good for ratings, and it helps them. And I just, I think that people should just ignore those people.
[...]
I'm from that part of Virginia. People are not like that. There's no -- I don't know anybody like that in Virginia. And obviously, our country has a very hard history. But in day-to-day lives -- and there are still problems that need to be addressed -- but in day-to-day lives, people have respect for one another, walking down the street --
HARRIS FAULKNER (CO-HOST): We're going to our jobs, we're living our lives.
HURT: Exactly. You hold the door for the person behind you at the grocery store, and everything is fine.
[...]
FAULKNER: So we're getting the reports that people were coming in from outside the area. Remember, we saw this in Ferguson, Missouri during the riots there. Some people just like to go and shake it up. We don't know what the situation was, but there were people from outside of your hometown area coming in.
ABBY HUNTSMAN (CO-HOST): Well, this is all organized, right? You lived there, you know this well. When I thought about Charlottesville, Virginia --
FAULKNER: What's the significance of that?
HURT: But -- and this is where I think Donald Trump gets into trouble, is that there are those instigators on both sides of this fight that was going on in Charlottesville, and none of them, none of -- and then there are also obviously some very decent people that were there because they felt inspired to be there. And the fact that one of them wound up getting killed is just beyond tragic. But those instigators on both sides, they don't represent any real portion of America. Most people have moved on beyond all of this.
FAULKNER: Or even some of the people on the ground.
SANDRA SMITH (CO-HOST): Can I ask you to address this, because some of the president's critics say that this is the president fearing alienating a portion of his base. Can you just address that?
HURT: I just -- maybe I'm naive about it, but I just don't think that -- I can't imagine that he would be that despicable. That's beyond -- I tend to try to give people the benefit of the doubt. If that is the case, that is the most disgusting thing on Earth. But I really don't think that that's what is going on here. But I think that he's put to a standard that is absurd.
