Hugh Hewitt stood up for 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Pete Buttigieg today, saying that a quote from his recent interview with the South Bend mayor on renaming Jefferson-Jackson dinners is being taken out of context. We covered it on Saturday:

Would the Jefferson Memorial get to stay? Pete Buttigieg wants events, buildings renamed https://t.co/VcxDk4JShz — Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 19, 2019

Here’s Hugh with what Buttigieg was getting at:

Agree Kelly. I noted to @BrianLehrer yesterday that too often bits and pieces of interviews and remarks are used to hype a headline and generate clicks. I think @PeteButtigieg would stop well short of tearing down the Jefferson Memorial. One key thing the mayor said: https://t.co/QLec6gk1tk — Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) May 19, 2019

Jefferson knew and wrote about the moral outrage of slavery in his Notes on Virginia and elsewhere. The latter generations of southerners tried to justify slavey via Calhoun but as Lincoln argued in Cooper Union Speech, the Framers from the South knew slavery was evil. — Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) May 19, 2019

As “fathers marked it, so let it be again marked, as an evil not to be extended,” declared Lincoln. The subsequent repudiation of this understanding mixed with deep hypocrisy and a lack of courage compromises the legacy of Jefferson, but what @PeteButtigieg argued is true. — Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) May 19, 2019

“Now we’re all morally conflicted human beings. And it’s not like we’re blotting him out of the history books, or deleting him from being the founder fathers. But you know, naming something after somebody confers a certain amount of honor.” https://t.co/zskjlmxObC — Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) May 19, 2019

It seems fair two write on basis of interview that @PeteButtigieg would support removing most if not all statues honoring the confederacy, and many honoring Jackson, but leave Jefferson, Madison and Washington as remembered, but accurately, as “morally conflicted human beings.” — Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) May 19, 2019

It is discouraging to see people comment on public officials —left, right and center— without giving those offficials any credit for good intentions, nuance, or simply lack of time to fully present a case. It discourages liberals from talking to conservatives and vis-versa. — Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) May 19, 2019

I appreciate your spotting that @johnston_kelly. Thanks for the pointer. — Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) May 19, 2019

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