Obama said “defund the police” is a bad slogan. This shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Former President Barack Obama is getting pushback from progressive leaders in his party after saying in an interview Wednesday that political candidates who use “snappy” slogans such as “defund the police” could jeopardize their campaign goals on police reform and even lose support from their base.

“You lost a big audience the minute you say it, which makes it a lot less likely that you’re actually going to get the changes you want done,” Obama told Peter Hamby, who hosts Good Luck America, a Snapchat political show. “The key is...