MAGA millionaire and Donald Trump cheerleader Kevin O’Leary was called a “d---” to his face during a tense CNN panel discussion.
The NewsNight panel was discussing GOP redistricting pushes, spurred on by the Supreme Court ruling on Monday that cleared the path for Alabama to eliminate one of two largely Black congressional districts.
Shark Tank star O’Leary took the stance that this is enshrined in the Constitution, and that any nuance was off the table. He continually interrupted Black panelist Bakari Sellers as he tried to draw historical parallels. This tense exchange led Sellers, who served four terms as a Democrat in the South Carolina House of Representatives, to urge O’leary to “stop being a d---.”
“I think everybody should take confidence in the fact the Supreme Court basically supported one vote, one person, guaranteed in perpetuity, and the rest is just map wars,” the TV-savvy businessman said. “I think we should get used to it. And I think it’s, as you said, a state-based situation. Add this to the mix. At the end of the day, the state decides at the state level, it’s in the Constitution. Get over it.”
“The problem with that sentiment is that you were born in 1954,” Sellers said. “You’re 71. In 1954, during your lifetime, we actually had Brown v. Board of Education—”
“I remember,” O’Leary interupted.
“I don’t know how you remember,” Sellers said. “I think you were, like, 2 months old.”
After a flurry of indiscernible cross-talk, Sellers pressed on with his point. “Yeah, because you’re still alive, right?” he said. “So there is an entire generation of people—Brown v. Board, it overturned Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896…”
O’Leary rudely interrupted, gesturing and saying, “And your point is? Bring it, bring it, bring it.”
Sellers remained calm and added, “My point is that my mother was born in 1951,” he said. “She desegregated schools. My father was shot in the civil rights movement—”
“And?” O’Leary asked.
“I’m going to finish because you’re being utterly disrespectful,” Sellers pushed back as O’Leary protested his innocence, “Not at all.”
“So I’m going to finish this comment,” Sellers said. “So what I’m telling you is that there are people in this country who fought, died, and bled for the right to vote. Don’t be a d---. Just understand. Just understand.”
Host Abbie Phillip was forced to intervene. “I‘m going to stop you because I just want everybody to reset with a modicum of respect at this table. Please stop,” she pleaded.
O’Leary said the Constitution is “being upheld” and asked Sellers, “Do you have a problem with the Constitution of the United States of America?”
Sellers was attempting to make the point that the 6-3 ruling will likely remove a Democratic incumbent from the state and will focus on lines that include only one majority-Black district. The move gives Republicans an edge in six of the state’s seven House districts.
“What we‘re seeing throughout the South is that their voice, their vote, their representation, and people who have lived experiences to represent them are not being sent to Congress or where they need to go,” he said.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Black-majority congressional district in Louisiana has provided grounds for Republicans in several Southern states to try to eliminate House districts with large minority populations that had been protected under the Voting Rights Act.
