The panel on CNN’s State of the Union this morning went off after comments from former Trump advisor Michael Caputo on the President’s reaction to the violence in Charlottesville.

Caputo said he understood what Trump meant when he talked about “both sides”:

“America is being destroyed by people on both sides thinking that the other side destroying the world. America is being moved into chaos by people on both sides who think that they’re better than anyone else on the other side. With the rhetoric gets heightened, you know, turns violent, and eventually you have to racist KKK fighting the fascist Antifa in the streets of Charlottesville. Both sides showed up with helmets and weapons.”

Van Jones said that “this not a time to talk about both sides,” criticizing President Trump for just not more directly saying “I don’t want this in my country.”

Bill Kristol pointed to how Republicans like George W. Bush were very clear in their denunciations of people like David Duke. He added, “I felt sick reading the President’s statement.”

Caputo shot back, “The President is never going to check all your boxes… His statement was strong. If you didn’t think it was strong, you weren’t listening.”

Kristol bewilderedly asked, “Really? That was a strong statement?”

Caputo brought up Antifa again and why people aren’t condemning violence from that side. Kristol says he does condemn that, but added, “This is the kind of moral equivalence that conservatives especially denounced for 25, 35 years.”

Nina Turner said just thinking about the events of this weekend and President Trump’s statement in a historical context, “this is painful.”

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

— —

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]