'Caravans' of Trump voters are 'looking for trouble' while Trump is 'fanning the flames': Nixon counsel John Dean

Former White House counsel for President Richard Nixon, John Dean celebrated the Portland mayor's assessment of President Donald Trump during a CNN appearance Sunday. Notably, however, he also said that he has seen "caravans" of Trump supporters rushing to progressive cities to counter-protest against peaceful Black Lives Matter rallies, which then stirs up violence.

"I thought it was terrific," said Dean, speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "I thought Ted Wheeler, I don't know him, but I thought his standing up and calling it out for what it is, that he saw these -- they've seen these caravans come into town, we've got them here in Los Angeles, of Trump supporters, they're looking for trouble. They're trying to provoke conflict with the peaceful protestors, the Black Lives Matter protests, and they're trying to disrupt it and somehow taint it. So I thought the mayor was right on and he called trump out and obviously got under his skin for doing so."

Photos of the Trump protesters were tweeted. According to accounts, the MAGA crowd set off teargas and shot people with paintballs.

He said that he thinks Trump is eagerly trying to stir up racial animus and conservative hate for Black Lives Matter so as to distract from his failures on the coronavirus.

Dean also mentioned the report that Gen. John Kelly refused to offer loyalty over the Constitution to score the top position at the FBI. It was something that, Dean said, Nixon would never have done. Despite suggesting the idea of loyalty, Dean explained that Nixon firmly supported government institutions.

"I think it's a step beyond the Nixon playbook," Dean told Blitzer. "I don't think that Nixon asked anybody serving in the government for loyalty. I think he implied it and indicated that he wanted it through his appointment and thought that people were loyal should only be the people working for him, particularly in the key agencies in the department. But he wasn't so crude, Wolf, as to actually ask for it."

See Dean's interview below: