‘Basking in Glee!’ CNN’s Bakari Sellers Does Victory Dance on ‘Repudiation’ of Trump in Judicial Election

Democratic CNN commentator Bakari Sellers took a victory lap and roasted Trump-leaning colleagues Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and Brad Todd for their takes on a key judicial election that he said was a “repudiation” of President Donald Trump.

Judge Susan Crawford beat Judge Brad Schimel by a wide margin in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race on Tuesday night, despite Elon Musk’s $19-million-plus cash dump and President Trump’s vehement support.

Sellers was a panelist on Tuesday’s election night edition of CNN NewsNight, during which Todd and Malliotakis gave their analyses of the Wisconsin race.

Malliotakis said that “nothing has actually changed,” while Todd’s lesson was that the Republicans didn’t have enough money.

Sellers was gleeful at the result and the takes:

TODD: I think there’s a big warning sign tonight for Republicans in Wisconsin, and it’s about money. The Democratic candidate, Susan Crawford, raised $22 million. That is 10 times what Democrat candidates for this office raised just four years ago. She outraised the Republican 2 to 1.

Republicans are not going to prevail in the midterms if we can’t find ways to get money directly to candidates. Not talking just big dollar Super PACs, but big money to candidates. That’s the worry I have as Republican.

PHILLIP: Yeah. I mean, it’s such an — I was thinking a lot about the money, honestly, tonight because I think a lot of people think, okay, the more money you have, you’re going to have an advantage. And I don’t know that that’s really what we learned tonight. But — but to your point — I mean, Trump was able to — to benefit from Elon Musk and Republicans, $290 million, right, in the last election, all outside money for the most part.

But there is something different when the candidate can actually utilize that money themselves and utilize it correctly. And I — I just think that we might be past the point where just sheer dollars are going to be determinative in these races. It has gotten kind of crazy.

SELLERS: First of all, I — I’m actually just kind of over here basking in glee with both of my Republican colleagues. One saying that these elections didn’t change anything or matter. You saying that the candidate’s money was the biggest issue. I think both of those missed the mark hugely.

These races matter today because they set a tone. And yes, it was an outer rejection on Elon Musk trying to buy another race. And so, money does matter. And we’re seeing Elon Musk in Wisconsin giving away million-dollar checks. People are simply saying that you cannot buy elections anymore in the United States of America.

And to say that these races didn’t matter because they didn’t change anything, I think you saw a repudiation of the fact that Donald Trump got elected to seal the southern border and to reduce the price of eggs. Donald Trump has come to Washington, D.C. and flipped things upside down in a way that people do not want.

And so today, you had — I forget the department because they shut a new department down every day, but you had employees — I think it was HHS today. I can’t recall who — it was at HHS.

PHILLIP: At the health department —

SELLERS: Yeah, at the health department standing in line today, and they didn’t know who was going to be hired and who wasn’t. And so, you can sit here and say that, oh, we’re not going to cut Medicaid, we’re not going to do this, but the people who are in charge of running those programs don’t have jobs today.

And so, it’s hard to effectuate and — and put those policies in place if — if Elon Musk is here running rough shot on the government.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.