Trey Gowdy and Bakari Sellers call for due process and common ground at Wofford College event

SPARTANBURG — TV commentators Bakari Sellers and Trey Gowdy are on different ends of the political spectrum, but at Wofford College April 29 the two lawyers and former legislators agreed on one major point: due process. 

"The result you get matters, but how you get that result matters every bit as much," Gowdy, a former South Carolina congressman, told the audience gathered in the Jerome Johnson Richardson Theatre.

Both men shared that ethos as they decried the circumstances surrounding the deportation of Maryland man Kilmar Ábrego García, whom the Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March on the grounds that he was a member of the notorious MS-13 gang. 

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration nearly two weeks ago to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., rejecting the White House’s claim that it couldn’t retrieve him.

"There's not one person who will say that he should not be deported," said Sellers, a Democrat and former member of the S.C. General Assembly. "I don't say that, but bring him back and go through the process and deport him legally." 

Gowdy, a Republican who now hosts a show on Fox News, deviated from the stance of many of his GOP congressional colleagues, who've called for Garcia to remain where he is, as he agreed with Sellers, a regular on CNN. 

"I've got a long resume of prosecuting people. I am not weak on crime, but I am strong on the protections of due process," Gowdy said.

"You can't defy court orders," he added. 

The conversation was part of a new event series at Wofford College called "A Candid Conversation," a set of moderated discussions featuring perspectives from both sides of the political spectrum. The conversation between Gowdy and Sellers was moderated by Billy Webster, a former chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and a former assistant to President Bill Clinton.

Gowdy served four terms representing Greenville and Spartanburg in Congress. The former federal prosecutor who made his national reputation during the Benghazi consulate attack investigation, announced in 2019 he would not seek reelection. He now hosts a podcast and show, "Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy," on Fox.

Sellers, a Denmark native and son of civil rights activist Cleveland Sellers, became the youngest Black elected official in the country at age 22 when he joined the S.C. House in 2006. He ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2014 and has since built a national profile in his role as a political commentator on CNN. 

The two men discussed a range of topics, from tariffs to higher education to foreign policy. They also both emphasized the need for empathy and civil dialogue in public discourse.

Gowdy, who co-authored a book with Sen. Tim Scott in 2019, reflected multiple times on his friendship with Scott, R-S.C., and the importance of "borrowing someone else's eyes" to understand different perspectives.

He cited the time Scott was denied access to the Capitol while wearing his member pen, and Scott's use of his Senate bumper sticker to appear less threatening to police. 

"We need to start engaging with more people that don't look like us, think like us, look like us, worship like us," he said.

Those points resonated with 52-year-old Daniel Sulton, an attorney from Greenville who was in the audience.

"If we can be civil and have honest discourse, then we can find common ground, but we can't do that," Sulton said. "Whatever the issue is — tariffs or immigration or whatever — it's polarizing, and everybody runs to their respective side, and very little gets done."

Sellers and Gowdy also discussed the balance of power between Congress and the president in a post-Trump administration. Sellers dubbed Trump a phenomenon and likened him to a bull in a china shop.

"The problem with that analogy is that china shop will never be the same. You can't put those pieces back together," he said. 

Sellers said he hoped Americans would elect "smarter people" to public office, adding it would help at a state level to pay legislators more. The S.C. Senate last week voted a $18,000-a-year pay raise into the state’s spending plan for the next budget year.

Gowdy agreed with Seller's analysis, pointing to the 2022 midterms when Republicans lost seats across the country.

"There's a group of voters that will come out for Donald Trump that will not come out for anyone else," Gowdy said. 

Gowdy, the son of a doctor, grew up in Spartanburg and graduated from Spartanburg High School in 1982. He attended Baylor University and was an attorney by age 24.

His first foray into politics was as 7th Circuit solicitor in his mid-30s, a post he won in 2000 and held for 10 years before beating former Rep. Bob Inglis in a four-way race for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in 2010.

In Washington, he headed the special committee investigating the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. The post put him at odds in questioning former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the government's handling of the response. Four Americans died in the attack, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Gowdy opted to leave Congress in 2018, expressing disappointment at Washington and what he was able to accomplish there. In addition to his Fox gig, he temporarily returned to his job as a white collar criminal defense attorney for Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, the firm he was with in the early 1990s before becoming a federal prosecutor.

Sellers currently practices law with the Strom Law Firm LLC in Columbia. He also hosts “The Bakari Sellers Podcast" and has written three books: “My Vanishing Country: A Memoir,” a children's book, “Who Are Your People” and “The Moment.”

In the past, Sellers has signaled interest in one day succeeding South Carolina’s longest-serving congressman, Democratic U.S. Rep. James Clyburn. But at Wofford Tuesday night, Sellers said that desire is fading as policymaking becomes ever more partisan. 

"That appetite for D.C. slowly dissipates every day," he said, adding his focus is on being "a good husband and amazing dad."

Gowdy said he was enjoying giving speeches, hosting on Fox and writing on his own time. He plans to release a psychological crime drama soon. 

"Bakari's at the beginning of his career, I'm at the end of mine," he said. "I've already had the job I wanted to have, which was being a prosecutor."