Symone Sanders, the former chief spokeswoman for Vice President Harris who advised and defended the groundbreaking politician during a historic but uneven first year, has taken a job with MSNBC, the network announced Monday morning.
Before her departure at the end of last year, Sanders had been one of Harris’s most vocal and public defenders. In addition to concerns about whether Harris had adequately addressed the issues in her portfolio, the vice president’s office was beset by concerns about messaging discipline and staff dysfunction, topped by four high-level departures at the end of the year.
The troubles have continued into 2022. Jamal Simmons, who was hired as communications director for the vice president’s office, spent his first days on the job apologizing for decade-old tweets about “undocumented folks.”
For the record, I've never advocated for, nor believed that Dreamers should be targeted by ICE agents. I've been for DACA + comprehensive immigration reform for years. Frankly, it's depressing ppl can forget about every other thing I've said in public on this bc of bad tweets.
— Jamal Simmons (@JamalSimmons) January 7, 2022
Sanders, 31, a Black political strategist, was a spokeswoman for the 2016 presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) but became a senior adviser to Joe Biden in his 2020 bid for the White House, a race that played out amid racial unrest following the police killing of George Floyd. Black voters emerged as key to Biden’s victory. She has previously been a political analyst for CNN and published a 2020 memoir, “No, You Shut Up.”
