'Preventing hatred is not obstruction': Angela Rye cleans clock of GOPer who rips Dems for 'historic obstructionism'

CNN contributor Angela Rye called out a former Republican staffer on Wednesday after he claimed that Democrats in the Senate are guilty of "historic obstructionism."

During a CNN panel discussion about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) decision to cancel most of the August recess, host Kate Bolduan wondered if the top Senate Republican was trying to hobble the campaigns of Democratic senators.

"It keeps Democrats in vulnerable seats off the campaign trail at an important time," Bolduan noted.

Scott Jennings, a former aide to McConnell, argued that the Senate has "a lot of work to do because Democrats have engaged in historic obstructionism on the president's appointments."

The remark left Rye shaking her head.

"If they would give up this historic obstructionism, they could do a lot of their work before August," Jennings insisted.

"I have to respond to Scott," Rye replied. "I think historic obstructionism occurred under the Barack Obama administration. I think that we can't just lightly throw those terms around. Your former boss said that he was doing everything in his power to make Barack Obama a one-term president. The first thing that this new president did when he came into office is try to undo all the major accomplishments of the Obama administration."

"I think it's different," she continued, "when you're trying to prevent obstruction to civil rights, when you're trying to prevent bigotry, when you're trying to prevent sexism, when you're trying to prevent historic oppression in 2018 -- 50 years after [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s] assassination."

Rye concluded: "I think that's completely different. That's trying to prevent hatred from winning. That's trying to prevent bigotry from winning. That is not obstruction. That's protection."

Watch the video below from CNN.