Former NPR host says Obama is 'very scold-y these days,' no longer resonates with base

Former President Barack Obama’s recent call for Democrats to "toughen up" sparked a conversation on Monday among CNN pundits about his changing importance to the party. One panelist deemed the comments a "pretty scold-y" lecture from Obama. 

A panel on CNN’s "The Arena with Kasie Hunt" reacted to Obama’s comments about Democratic Party disarray, with CNN contributor and former NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro arguing that Obama’s tone and status in the party have changed dramatically since his time as president.

"I‘ll also say from having read that speech that he gave, he was pretty scold-y. He is very scold-y these days. And he talked a lot about how people are not stepping up and doing their part, and how people have been folding and not really standing up tall. And I just don't think that that goes down very well anymore," she said. 

"We saw that in the run-up to the election, where he was sort of telling Black men that they needed in solidarity to vote for a Black woman, and I think that that kind of scold-y Obama really doesn't play to the Democratic base anymore," Garcia-Navarro added.

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CNN contributor and former NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro addressed Obama's comments. (Photo by Marla Aufmuth/Getty Images for Texas Conference for Women)

As the Democratic Party continues to struggle to chart a new course forward, the 44th president offered a tough love message to the members of his party at a fundraiser on Friday on how to find their way out of the political wilderness. 

"I think it’s going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions," Obama said during the private event in New Jersey, "and it’s going to require Democrats to just toughen up."

He reportedly went on to tell Democrats to "stop looking for the messiah" and instead rally around the "great candidates running races right now." 

"Don’t tell me you’re a Democrat, but you’re kind of disappointed right now, so you’re not doing anything. No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something," Obama added.

On Monday, CNN anchor Kasie Hunt noted the irony that Obama "was often treated" like a political messiah himself.

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Former President Barack Obama told Democratic donors to "toughen up." (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Democratic strategist and former Obama adviser David Axelrod weighed in as well during the panel discussion. 

"I half agree," he said. "I applaud those people, those law firms who had the courage to stand up, universities that are standing up to protect academic freedom. I also am aware that there are responsibilities to the institutions that people are leading that cause those to be difficult questions."

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Axelrod continued, "So it's not as easy as one might say. That said, there may have been people in that room last night who were there to support the Democratic Party, but had questions about whether they wanted to stick their own neck out, if they were part of a big law firm and so on. And for them, maybe the message was appropriate."