CNN’s Bakari Sellers on Bernie Sanders’ Chances with Black Voters: ‘That Ship Has Already Sailed’
CNN contributor and former Democratic state legislator Bakari Sellers offered a grim assessment of Bernie Sanders‘ chances to connect with black voters in the 2020 presidential primary campaign.
On Sunday morning’s edition of CNN’s State of the Union, host Jake Tapper brought up Sanders’ past troubles connecting with black voters.
“[Sanders is] also emphasizing his commitment to the civil rights movement way back in the ’60s when he was at the University of Chicago,” Tapper said. “He was criticized last time for not connecting effectively with the African-American community. Is this part of what he needs to do to get the nomination?”
“I think that Bernie Sanders has a long way to go,” Sellers said, then added “There’s a certain part of me that believes that ship has already sailed.”
“I mean, it’s not the fact that Bernie Sanders marched with Dr. King in the ’60s,” he continued. “I think that was one of the first things that he said. The question was, where have you been and what have you done since then. Where has your activism been since the ’60s, and show me your legislation as mayor of Burlington or why you’ve been in the United States House or United States Senate to positively affect change in the African-American community. And he wasn’t able to articulate that answer.”
Sellers also observed that Sanders’ 2020 bid “was a home for people who had a problem with Hillary Clinton,” but that this time around, “there are other people in this quote, unquote, ‘progressive lane,’ and I think that Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Beto, Biden and Sherrod Brown and a few others are really out there running magnificent campaigns.”
In 2016, the emphasis on Sanders’ early-60s activism earned him a bit of shade from civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), who said of Sanders “I never saw him. I never met him.”
It also prompted the start of a derisive “#BernieSoBlack” hashtag, which has been resurrected this time around as well.
Watch the clip above, from CNN.
[Image via screengrab]
