If you want to understand what happened in Charlottesville, VA, in 2017, you have to go back read the local newspapers for the last few years.
For example, read about the city manager at the time, whose previous job was the sports reporter for the local TV station.
His subordinate, the chief of police, specifically instructed the police to “let them fight”, i.e. let the protestors and counter-protestors fight without interfering. This was confirmed by an independent study commissioned by the city council. When the study was published, the chief of police immediately resigned.
The whole mess was started by two members of the city council deciding on their own to start removing historical statues and renaming local parks. This action was taken without any kind of public referendum.
The “both sides have good people” remark was true. It was an ultra-liberals vs. conservatives issue. The white supremacists happened to be on the same side as the conservatives and moderate liberals; that didn’t invalidate that point of view.