Former Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean equated President Donald Trump’s voting base with neo-Nazis in a tweet on Monday morning.
Dean was responding to a news story that detailed a rally and counter-protests that took place on Saturday in Newnan, Georgia.
Trump base voters. https://t.co/MIuradRgLw
— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) April 23, 2018
The tweet Dean quoted referenced TIME’s coverage of the event.
This happened yesterday in the United States of America. https://t.co/eOKxPi5aHf
— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) April 23, 2018
The “dozens” who reportedly showed up for the rally were vastly outnumbered by some 100 counter-protesters (some affiliated with antifa) and nearly 700 law enforcement officers dispatched to ensure that what happened in Charlottesville, Va., was not repeated.
Following the rally, the white supremacist group allegedly met up again in Draketown, some 50 miles away. There, they participated in the burning of a swastika that appeared to be some ten feet tall.
Nearly a dozen arrests were made at the initial rally, but all of those arrested were associated with the counter-protest. Police cited some of them for refusing to remove their masks, a violation of a law that was initially enacted to attack the Ku Klux Klan.