Sitting in the Walmart parking lot, Louise Adamson, 78, shook her head as she thought about the violence in Virginia.
“It’s so saddening to see what’s going on, and it’s getting worse and worse,” she said.
Mrs. Adamson and her husband, who recently sold Bloomington Valley Nursery, a garden and landscaping business they started decades ago, attend services each Sunday at Bloomington Southern Baptist church. She said she had voted for Mr. Trump because she liked that he was not a politician.
But President Trump’s response to the violence made her angry, she said, adding that Mr. McMillon was correct in denouncing the president.
“Somebody’s got to say it,” she said. “We’ve got to speak up. So few of us have any kind of say. If you get too involved, you get yourself killed.”
Ed Congdon, who also voted for Mr. Trump, had a different view.
“I think all C.E.O.s should keep their mouths shut,” said Mr. Congdon, 63, who was listening to the Rush Limbaugh radio show while his wife shopped inside. “You want to be a political pundit, go on CNN.”
Mr. Congdon, who drives tractor-trailers for a living, said he agreed with President Trump’s hesitation to place the blame for the violence solely on the “conservative side.”
“The biggest problem is that they’re not calling out the liberal side of things,” he said, adding that the Virginia protesters should be “investigated” as to who “paid them.”
As for giving his business to Walmart, Mr. Congdon seemed resigned. “My wife’s going to be shopping here till the day she dies,” he said.
— Hannah Alani
