The deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee places much of the blame for his party’s recent electoral failures at the feet of President Obama.

“Barack Obama could have been a better party leader, and I think the fact that he wasn’t has put his legacy in jeopardy,” Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison said at an event held at the University of Minnesota on Wednesday.

Ellison, a progressive who backed Bernie Sanders for president and was an early supporter of Obama’s, said that the former president’s failure to lead the Democratic party led to steep losses at the national level as well as in state houses across the country.

“His true legacy is in danger, and I think he can’t say that he wasn’t part of those losses. I mean, who else?” said Ellison, who serves as second-in-command to DNC chairman Tom Perez.

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