Former South Carolina State Rep. Bakari Sellers (D.) assailed his party's leadership as "old" and "stale" during a CNN appearance Tuesday.
Democratic congressional candidate Conor Lamb has released a new ad in Pennsylvania distancing himself from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), leading CNN's John Berman to ask Sellers about the generational fight going on in the Democratic Party.
Pelosi will be 78 in March, and potential 2020 White House candidates like Joe Biden (age 75), Sen. Bernie Sanders (76), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (68) don't give the party a youthful look.
"It is a battle, and it's a battle that we're going to have to continue to fight," Sellers said, according to The Hill. "I don’t care if I get in trouble for saying this. I’ve been saying it since I’m blue in the face. Our Democratic leadership is old and our Democratic leadership is stale."
"When you look at the de facto leaders or the leaders of the Democratic Party, from the Joe Bidens to the Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warrens, Hillary Clintons, Nancy Pelosis, you go all the way down the list, I mean, you look at the leadership, the Chuck Schumers, in both chambers, you see that it's all above the age of 65, all above the age of 70," he added.
Sellers praised the Republican Party for lifting up younger leaders like Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and giving them opportunities to reach leadership posts.
"In the Democratic Party we have a hard time with our leaders holding on to the mantle and then browbeating those people who choose to challenge them," he said. "I’m one to believe that Nancy Pelosi has done an amazing job, but Nancy Pelosi also needs to put in place a succession program so that Hakeem Jeffries ... or many of the other young people in the Democratic Party have an opportunity to lead and bring in some fresh values."