CNN contributor Bakari Sellers: 'Bernie 2020 died 4/4/18'

Democratic political strategist and CNN contributor Bakari Sellers stuck a fork in Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential ambitions.

The Vermont independent dismissed former President Barack Obama as a charismatic lightweight during a speech in Jackson, Mississippi, on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

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

Sanders blamed Obama for the Democratic Party's record number of legislative losses, and Sellers said that attack on the first black U.S. president on that historically significant date should doom Sanders in Democratic primaries.

Sanders, who eventually lost his Democratic primary race against Hillary Clinton, was criticized during his presidential campaign for a failure to connect with black voters.