“What about Portland?” he asked, pointing to the months of protest and mayhem in Oregon’s largest city. “When it’s the left behind the violence, then it’s just them expressing their voice, their creativity.”

In two dozen interviews with Trump backers across deeply conservative slices of Texas and Georgia, they condemned Wednesday’s violence, but at the same time did not hold the president responsible.

Rather, they said they understood the anger behind it, expressing their own anger with what they believe was a fraudulent election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

They blamed the violence on left wing protesters – without any evidence – and expressed little hope that the deeply divided country would unify anytime soon.

And none were prepared to abandon Trump, who has insisted he prevailed in the Nov. 3 election, making unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud that were rejected by the courts.