CNN’s Bakari Sellers attempted to draw down on Republican commentator Scott Jennings during a Monday evening panel discussion, bristling when Jennings assessed New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani in the same way that President Donald Trump had: “a communist.”
Both Sellers and Jennings addressed the issue on CNN’s “NewsNight” with host Abby Phillip, discussing a recent video that showed Mamdani throwing around Marxist terms such as “seizing the means of production” and using government funds to buy up housing developments that would eventually be community-owned.
WATCH:
🔥@ScottJenningsKY battles Bakari Sellers who is riled up over the idea that Mamdani is being called a “communist.”
Sellers: He’s a socialist.
Jennings: He’s using the language of the Bolsheviks, is he not?
Sellers: No, he’s not. He’s a socialist.
Jennings: Seizing the means… pic.twitter.com/EtDWGUpiMv
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) July 2, 2025
“Calling him a communist is not far off base, when he talks about seizing the means of production,” former White House spokesman (under former President George W. Bush) Pete Seat said. “That is a Communist Party plank. He is talking about doing that. So I don’t have any problems with calling him what he is.”
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“And I don’t have any problem calling Donald Trump a felon,” Sellers replied. “Or charged with rape. Or the fact that he doesn’t pay his vendors. Or the fact that he’s racist because he got — he illegally [unintelligible] … and you’re right, you may have a Democratic socialist elected as mayor of New York City.”
“So you agree with Pete that he’s a communist?” Jennings asked.
“He’s not a communist,” one of the other panelists said off-camera.
“He’s a socialist,” Bakari said.
“He said ‘seize the means of production,'” Jennings said.
His voice rising a few pitches, Sellers repeated, “He’s a socialist! I’m not a socialist, but he calls himself —”
“He literally uses — he’s using the language of the Bolsheviks, is he not?” Jennings asked.
“No, he’s not,” Sellers tried again. “He’s a socialist, not a communist.”
“Seizing the means of production?” Jennings raised an eyebrow.
“That’s called socialism,” Sellers said. “Not communism.”
Phillip cut in then, bringing the debate to a close.
All evidence to the contrary, Mamdani has repeatedly stated that he is not a communist, but rather a “democratic socialist.”
