Republican gets blasted on CNN for saying Dems should be like Otto Warmbier and not like Johnny Depp

Former press secretary to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign Symone Sanders blasted the idea that the Democratic Party's solution to winning elections is to "win more white people" during a Saturday discussion on "CNN Newsroom with Ana Cabrera."

She also took aim at former Georgia congressman Rep. Jack Kingston (R)'s contention that the Democrats are losing special elections because they need to identify more with Otto Warmbier and less with Johnny Depp.

"I do think that the Democrats need some more leadership," Kingston said. "Right now they're well represented on the West Coast and the East Coast, but in Middle America, in the rust belt they need more representation. Keith Ellison is from Chicago but you don't have the Ohio factory type of workers represented in the leadership of the Democratic Party right now."

He went on to urge Democrats to have a "Sista Soulja" moment and renounce Kathy Griffin and Johnny Depp.

"The Democratic Party seems to identify more with Johnny Depp than Bernie Warmbier," he said before correcting himself and saying he meant Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old student who died this week after being returned from North Korea in a coma. "I think Middle America wants to see them identifying with Otto Warmbier and not Johnny Depp."

"Let me help you all with something," Sanders said. "First of all, Keith Ellison is from Minnesota," then went on to explain that the Democratic Party has a wide and racially diverse coalition including union members and working families.

"To somehow suggest that the answer to the Democratic Party's woes is -- basically for lack of a better term -- is just win more white people is absolutely incorrect," Sanders said.

Johnny Depp has taken heat on social media after joking this week about "the last time an actor assassinated a president." Warmbier was returned to the U.S. with zero brain activity after he was arrested for stealing a propaganda poster in North Korea. Warmbier traveled to North Korea in spite of a stern State Department warning urging U.S. citizens to avoid the country at all costs and exercise extreme caution while there.

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