When will the left stop the dangerous rhetoric?
Former Democratic South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers said Friday that a “more aggressive approach” is needed after President Donald Trump, arguing the next president must take “corrective action” against the “MAGA movement,” during an appearance on The Don Lemon Show.
Sellers’ remarks came as Trump faced criticism over a deleted video reiterating his 2020 election claims that briefly included a controversial meme; the meme was attached the video in error.
“Like this is a little bit controversial with my friends as I sit politically because I think hindsight is showing us that um what we need after Donald Trump, what we needed after Donald Trump is not a bridge,” Sellers said. “Um you know, Joe Biden was somewhat of a bridge.”
“You know, Uncle Joe was the nice guy, older white guy, comes in and you want to eat ice cream with him, right?” Sellers continued. “Well, I think what that episode in our country’s history showed us is that we really need some fumigation, right? We need a exorcism, for lack of a better term. We need a more aggressive approach to go in and surgically remove the cancer that is the Donald Trump and MAGA movement.”
He then argued the issue was structural, not a one-off: “This is not a glitch… This is a part of the product,” Sellers said, adding that whoever comes next must be “aggressive enough” to take corrective action “irrespective of what they think the bounds of the office may be.”
The comments also resurfaced debate over standards for political rhetoric on cable news: CNN banned conservative commentator Ryan Girdusky in October 2024 after he told Mehdi Hasan, “I hope your beeper doesn’t go off,” a remark widely reported as referencing an Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah.
Watch the clip below:
Bakari Sellers tells Don Lemon: The country needs a “fumigation” of MAGA.
Is this acceptable rhetoric from your panelists, @CNN? pic.twitter.com/yYu4ubBetx
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) February 7, 2026
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