‘Let’s Not Erase Barack Obama’: CNN’s Bakari Sellers Calls Out Claim Progressives Are Alienated from Dem Party

CNN’s Bakari Sellers called out his fellow panelists for their argument that progressive have been alienated and minimized by the establishment within the Democratic Party, pointing to Trump’s predecessor and saying: “Let’s not erase Barack Obama.”

During CNN’s Nevada caucus night coverage, liberal pundits Alexandra Rojas and Jess McIntosh pointed to Bernie Sanders‘ impressive victory and said it was indicative of a backlash within the party where younger, more progressive voters are now flexing their political muscle.

Rojas, a former 2016 Sanders campaign organizer, noted that her former boss was seeing polling momentum in national polling and in most Super Tuesday states and disputed the notion that Sanders was unelectable because of his left-wing views. “We have to remember that, for four years, progressives, I think, have been made to feel small, like they’re a tiny fraction of America, that we’re divisive, and we have to wait, to be patient for these changes to be made,” she said. “It looks like in Nevada and across America, people are rejecting that notion that they have to wait for these things, and there’s a sense of urgency that people seem to feel on, not only defeating Donald Trump, but prioritizing the poor and working class.”

“But we just had one of the most progressive presidents in the country, in the country’s history recently,” said Sellers, a forearm South Carolina state representative, pushing back. “Let’s not erase Barack Obama.”

“Who’s doing that?” Van Jones shot back.

“Nobody is erasing Barack Obama,” Rojas added.

“But when saying that progressives felt small like they weren’t a part of anything, all I’m saying is that ‘No,'” Sellers countered. “We have Barack Obama who gave us Obamacare. Who insured tens of millions of people who otherwise wouldn’t be there.”

“The split in the party, though, wasn’t about Obama, it was about Hillary versus Bernie…” Jones said, “and so the Bernie progressives, I think, have felt that way.”

“I just want to add that there is a new generation of Democratic voters that look a lot more like me, [Rep.] Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, [Rep.] Ayanna Presley then [Speaker] Pelosi or Joe Biden,” Rojas said. “I agree, and I think that Barack Obama is one of the many movements that have opened up the space to make these things possible. We stand on the shoulder of giants, but you can’t erase the work of millions of young people like myself and others who have been working very, very hard for the past four years.”

“The most popular figure in our party, the person who expanded our party the most, I want everybody to understand is was a progressive president, he is a Progressive figure and although Bernie Sanders has moved the window, it is a paradigm shift in the party,” Sellers pushed back. “It doesn’t mean that all of a sudden we’re not including progressive voices.”

“I think for this election, since Donald Trump, we have been hearing a lot about electability,” McIntosh argued. “The way we frame this question: ‘Would you rather have somebody who can beat Donald Trump or somebody who agrees you with on the issues?’ literally sets up the frame that progressives can’t win at the same rate that moderates can. But I think we’re seeing, in these contests, that that’s just not true.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.