Bakari Sellers slaps down Chris Cuomo for playing up intraparty division: 'Joe Biden is not a racist'
On Thursday night's edition of CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time," former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers, chastised Chris Cuomo for trying to insinuate that any sort of mid-primary criticism is counterproductive — and for bastardizing his camp's arguments against former Vice President Joe Biden.
"You want to talk about the difference between a circular primary squad, which was what Obama was worried about in critiquing," said Cuomo. "You go after Joe Biden time and time again. 'You're not a bigot but — look what you did, look what you did.' How does it not do two potential things, one, fatigue the issue. It all matters. The people you noted to dissuade, if they hear about it for the next eight months while you fight within your party, what appetite will they have? And you are empowering the president to say, you call everybody a racist. You call everybody the person in front of me. Everybody is a racist. Then what? How does that help you?"
"Well, you are wrong Chris. And I love you. I love you. You're wrong," said Sellers. "The reason that you're wrong is because no one out there is calling Joe Biden a racist."
"They say he's not a racist, but," said Cuomo.
"Joe Biden is not a racist," said Sellers. "There is no one out there who has ever said that Joe Biden was a racist."
"But he did all these things that were bad for black people," Cuomo pressed him.
"He did. Those are bad policy prescriptions," said Sellers. "And yes, Barack Obama chose him to be the vice president. That does not whitewash anything did he before that. We can critique that. Barack Obama took amazing steps. If Joe Biden wants to talk about being part of those steps, about the 21st century policing. He will have to talk about his record. If Cory Booker has to stand up there and defend his record in Newark, if Kamala Harris has to defend her record in California, then Joe Biden has to defend not just his past record but the previous 40."
"I was Barack Obama's co-chairperson in 2008 in South Carolina," added Sellers. "This is no greater fan of Barack Obama than I. To act as if we cannot have friendly family discussions or differences on how we'll build on his legacy is asinine."
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