If you thought the candidate was running on the Republican Party ticket, you’d sadly be wrong.

Continuing with the unfortunate recent history of some self-identified “progressives” adopting GOP talking points and making outrageous statements for social media impact, today, Cenk Uygur, Democratic candidate for the special election in the 25th District of California, managed to accuse Speaker Nancy Pelosi of murder and excuse outgoing Kentucky Republican Governor Matt Bevin’s deeply troubling pardon of a convicted child rapist, all in a single tweet.

x Matt Bevin appears to have taken a bribe to release a murderer. But I don't know why the FBI is investigating. These bribes are perfectly legal in America. They're called campaign contributions. When Nancy Pelosi took bribes from insurance companies and 45,000 people died ... — Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) December 27, 2019

To provide a bit of history about the special election in California’s 25th District, the Democratic incumbent Rep. Katie Hill resigned after being the victim of revenge porn resulting from "alleged sexual indiscretions with a congressional staffer and an admission to a relationship with a campaign aide."

Her resignation triggered a special election, to be held on March 3. On December 12th, Cenk Uygur filed to run in the Democratic primary. Cenk’s entrance initially triggered endorsements from self-identified progressives like fellow Justice Democrat Rep. Ro Khana, co-chair of the Sanders Campaign Nina Turner, and Presidential Candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders himself. Upon criticism for endorsing a cretin like Uygur over a woman in a race to fill a seat vacated by a victim of revenge porn, Uygur rejected their endorsements. Only Bernie Sanders has rightly retracted his endorsement.

Mr. Sanders had said Mr. Uygur was “a voice we desperately need in Congress.” But many Democrats condemned the endorsement, citing Mr. Uygur’s history of offensive comments.

I don’t know how "progressive" is a voice funded by Republican Jeffrey Katzenberg, but the deplorability of Cenk Uygur and The Young Turks are no strangers to the Daily Kos community. Twitter journalist M. Mendoza Ferrer spent a considerable amount of time compiling YouTube videos from The Young Turks representing Cenk’s awful remarks over history. Ferrer became the target of a doxing operation by The Young Turk’s co-host Ana Kasparian, and has locked her account, so I can’t conveniently provide references to every horrible thing Cenk has done, but until recently, they were all there on YouTube. Democrats are obviously anxious about a seat that had previously been in Republican hands since 1993, reverting back to the GOP column after Rep. Katie Hill flipped it as part of the 2018 Blue Wave.

Uygur has become a hero for some progressive Democrats as a co-founder of The Young Turks, a left-wing video site. But voters in California’s 25th District may be less thrilled when they learn about many of Uygur’s past remarks, which include calling women genetically “flawed” because not enough women wanted to sleep with him.

x Ã¢ÂÂUygur also defended the Harvard University menÃ¢ÂÂs soccer team in 2016 for ranking the sexual appeal of female students on a scale of 1 to 10 on a widely shared Ã¢ÂÂscouting report,Ã¢ÂÂ including explicit descriptions of potential sex acts with the women.Ã¢ÂÂ https://t.co/Q30PGeO1nV — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 13, 2019

Of course there’s more. But back to Cenk’s deplorable sophism here, which can’t be disentangled from his sexism towards Speaker Pelosi, who is presently standing between Democracy in the United States and the abyss. Obamacare has saved Americans trillions and is saving (not costing) tens of thousands of lives a year. And Speaker Pelosi fought hard for not only the public option but Medicaid expansion in all 50 states that would be saving even more. Cenk Uygur is engaging in Sarah Palin Death Panel level fake news. Just because he self-identifies as a progressive should not excuse him.

Fortunately, Cenk has a challenger in the Democratic Primary: California State Assemblywoman Christy Smith.