‘Historically Ignorant’: CNN Panel Battles Over Trump’s Civil War Comments

Bakari Sellers and Ben Ferguson sparred on CNN over President Donald Trump‘s claim that had Andrew Jackson lived longer, the Civil War would not have happened.

Ferguson argued the president’s words have been taken out of context, offering his own (generous) interpretation that Trump was saying Jackson “knew just how brutal war was” and “there’s a decent chance he could have had a different outcome if he was the leader and maybe it wouldn’t have been such a bloody conflict.”

Sellers disagreed, calling Trump’s comments “historically ignorant,” noting Jackson “brutalized and killed — genocidal — a number of Native Americans,” and “owned 150 slaves.”

Sellers went on to say that slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, calling the president’s comments part of a “revisionist whitewashing of history.”

“People are getting sick and tired of the race card getting thrown around,” Ferguson shot back. “To imply somehow that what he’s saying is whitewashing is absurd.”

“No one is playing the race card when we’re talking about the Civil War,” Sellers responded.

The debate turned into something of a shouting match as the two commentators debated the causes of the Civil War, with Ferguson accusing Sellers of being “ignorant to history.”

“I actually was a history major, Ben,” Sellers said.

“You weren’t paying very good attention, then,” Ferguson responded.

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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