Liberal MSNBC commentator Joy Reid said Democrats should be concerned at the disappointment among progressives with Hillary Clinton's selection of Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) as her running mate.
"I think that you're definitely seeing among progressives disappointment, a sense that this was not a pick that affirmed the energy, the excitement and the anxieties of people on the left about things like trade, about things like the banks, about Wall Street," Reid said on Saturday. "Tim Kaine feels like, number one, an Obama-Clinton merger pick."
Reid said it felt like a continuation of Clinton running effectively as a third term of Barack Obama, who Kaine supported for president.
"But I do think that Democrats should be a bit concerned about the fact that the initial reaction among progressive voters is not enthusiastic," Reid said. "Yes, they're going to make the sale with his biography, but you need voters of color to be excited ... This is not a pick that's a big nod to either ethnic voters or to the left, and they're going to have to make the case somehow that it really is."
The Washington Post reported that groups with ties to far-left Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), whose presidential run was far stronger than expected, were critical of the choice because of Kaine's prior votes on Wall Street and trade agreements.
Sanders supporters have also renewed their anger with the party, in particular with Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), after leaked DNC emails revealed mocking of the Sanders campaign.
Sanders, after holding out for more than a month, gave a half-hearted endorsement of Clinton at a joint New Hampshire rally on July 12.