Quite a few commentators have condemned remarks by President Donald Trump after violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, as stating a false equivalency between far-right hate groups and counter-protesters.

It looks like Buncombe County Republican Party Chairman Carl Mumpower won't be one of them.

Mumpower posted a commentary on the Buncombe GOP website this week saying Trump's critics are wrong and that last week's attempt at removing a plaque honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee proves the point.

Mumpower wrote that instead of giving neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups a pass, Trump "called them out, but while doing so, he refused to give the other extremists a pass."

The day of the events in Charlottesville, Trump said, "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides."

The following week, Trump said, "you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides."

Critics of Trump's comments have included a number of Republican elected officials. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, said in Swannanoa Friday that Trump's comments were "misguided (and) ill-informed."

At a town hall meeting Tuesday, after Mumpower's commentary was published, U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-Lincoln, condemned far-right hate groups. When asked about Trump's comments, McHenry said, "I'm not him."

Mumpower said "when stupid people on the right side do dumb stuff--everyone piles on. That includes conservatives admirably refusing to give misguided members of our loose fraternity a pass."

But, Mumpower said, misdeeds on the left are excused.

Mumpower said a protest Friday when people tried to pry the Lee plaque from a stone qualifies as a riot under state law. He posted an overhead photo showing about 40 people standing in a three-quarters circle around the plaque in front of the Vance Monument in what Mumpower said was an attempt to shield from view those trying to pull the plaque off.

Four people police say were attempting to remove the plaque were charged with damage to real property. No violence against anyone was reported.

Mumpower said those standing on the perimeter won't be held accountable and a way to respond is for Republicans to "recruit your disgusted friends" to change their voter registration to the GOP.