CNN correspondent David Axelrod clashed with Dr. Abdul El-Sayeed, a surrogate for Bernie Sanders, over the economic record of the Obama administration.
"It's really worth us asking a question about whether or not there's trust in the traditional Democratic establishment to solve our problems," El-Sayeed explained during CNN's Super Tuesday coverage. "And that's been Bernie's point."
The Sanders surrogate argued that former Vice President Joe Biden is an "establishment" candidate.
"And that establishment left a lot of people behind," El-Sayeed continued. "And then we ask them to vote for that again? I'm just really worried that's not going to get us there. And you're seeing the circling of the wagons around that one candidate."
Axelrod made a point of returning to El-Sayeed's remarks later in the segment.
"I've got to respond to one thing," Axelrod said. "You talked about the eight years of growing inequality before Trump, meaning Obama. And I'm just wondering, do you think that's a winning strategy for Sanders to run against Obama presidency?"
"Because I was there when he became president and we were dealing with the greatest economic collapse since the great depression," the former White House adviser recalled. "Do you think what Sanders should do is he should sharpen his critique of Obama?"
"One of the things about the race you guys ran in 2008 is you ran for the future," El-Sayeed replied. "You didn't run back into history. I worry that right now the whole question is about how do we move with reference to Barack Obama, that's been Joe Biden's entire campaign message."
"And so let's run to the future," he added. "The future of the party."
"I think that's a smart thing to do," Axelrod agreed. "You were the one who brought up the eight years before Trump so I didn't think that was looking to the future."
Watch the video below from CNN.
