A liberal host running for California's House seat in the U.S. Congress called out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for taking campaign donations that he says led to 45,000 American deaths.

The bizarre accusation highlights a fracture in the Democratic Party between centrist establishment leadership and far left progressive activists.

"Matt Bevin appears to have taken a bribe to release a murderer. But I don't know why the FBI is investigating," Cenk Uygur tweeted.

"These bribes are perfectly legal in America," he continued. "They're called campaign contributions. When Nancy Pelosi took bribes from insurance companies and 45,000 people died because they didn't have private health insurance, we didn't call that a bribe."



Uygur was referring to an investigation into pardons by former Gov. Matt Bevin in Kentucky, but he pivoted it into an attack on Pelosi for what he perceived as a lack of support for government controlled health care.

Many Democrats responded with angry denunciations of his claims against Pelosi. Uygur doubled down in other tweets.

"Fact: Anything outside of #MedicareForAll is not Universal Health Care Coverage," Uygur responded to a liberal critic defending Pelosi.

"Fact: 45,000 people a year die because we don't have universal health care. Fact: Pelosi is fundamentally opposed to #MedicareForAll," he added.



Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) revoked his endorsement of Uygur's campaign after various controversies over his previous statements.

Uygur is running for the House seat to replace former Rep. Katie Hill, who stepped down earlier this year.

Here's more about Uygur: