Bernie Sanders spokesperson hits back against Bakari Sellers: He's trying to sow 'racial division'

After former South Carolina politician and current CNN commentator Bakari Sellers criticized Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) earlier in the day on Thursday, a spokesman for the senator responded by saying the pundit was attempting to sow "racial division."

Sellers remark came on Twitter in response to news that Sanders criticized the Democratic Party's "business model" was failing — and that the party hid behind the "charisma" of former President Barack Obama.

"The business model, if you like, of the Democratic Party for the last 15 years or so has been a failure,” Sanders said at the Wednesday event. “People sometimes don’t see that because there was a charismatic individual named Barack Obama. He was obviously an extraordinary candidate, brilliant guy.”

Sanders made the comment, Sellers noted, at an event in Jackson, Mississippi commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

"Bernie 2020 died 4/4/18," the pundit tweeted.

In an interview with BuzzFeed New, the Sanders' longtime strategist Jeff Weaver said Sellers purposefully misconstrued the onetime presidential hopeful's words to sow "racial division."

When reached for comment by BuzzFeed, Sellers responded in kind.

"My father was shot because of racial [division],” the pundit said, referencing South Carolina's Orangeburg Massacre in 1968. “[Weaver] should find another line of attack, because I will not dignify that."