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 by 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,’’ she said.

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When Lemon suggested that Trump only named the groups in a prepared statement Monday “under duress’’ after major 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. 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 until now, 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.

“To my party, to the Republicans who are speaking out today, my question is, ‘What the hell took you so long?’ When someone shows you who they are the first time, believe them.’’

Republican U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona both denounced the white-supremacist groups after Saturday’s violent protest along with any effort to equate the two sides.

Lemon then showed a clip of Trump’s controversial statement during his presidential campaign in which he said Mexico sends mostly “rapists’’ and other criminal elements into the United States.

Brewer responded by defending that statement as well, saying, “As a (former) border governor, we know that we’re not getting the best of what Mexico can send us. We know the drug cartels are down there. We know the rapists are coming across, and then they go to sanctuary cities, and then they head back, and then they come back here again. This is America. American people ought to be protected also.’’

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.”

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