WATCH: Ex-Obama Campaign Manager Says No Question Bernie Sanders is ‘The Worst Candidate’

Former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said that Independent Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is “the worst candidate” Democrats could select to run against President Donald Trump.

Senator Sanders’ recent surge in some polls appears to be alarming some Democrats like Messina, who appeared on Thursday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss a recent survey of young voters that shows Sanders with huge leads over his Democratic competitors and Trump.

Messina pointed out that young people are historically less likely to vote, but conceded that if millennial voters turn out in large numbers, “it will change the electoral math.”

But he argued that Sanders’ emphasis on programs like free college tuition is “a message I think is gonna get him killed” in the general election.

“I think he’s the worst candidate in a general election for exactly that reason,” Messina said.

“You think Bernie is the worst candidate?” co-host Willie Geist asked.

“I don’t think there’s a question about it,” Messina said, adding, “I think it is clear to me, with these swing voters I care about, the Trump — Obama voters in midwestern states, Bernie Sanders is not the candidate we need to beat Donald Trump in November.”

Sanders polls well in head-to-head matchups with Trump, but not as well as former Vice President Joe Biden does, and while Sanders’ supporters rightly complain that the media has been too dismissive of his success, he has also managed to escape the close scrutiny of his policy proposals that candidates like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren have faced.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.