MSNBC host Symone Sanders Townsend abruptly announced her departure from the Democratic Party over the weekend, shocking her cohosts as she declared that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — and the handful of other Senate Democrats who had voted with him to pass the Republican-led continuing resolution — “blew it.”
Townsend worked for a number of prominent Democrats and leftists prior to her stint on MSNBC, serving as press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and then as a senior adviser first to former President Joe Biden and then to former Vice President Kamala Harris — but she said that Schumer’s move to avert a government shutdown was enough to finally drive her out.
WATCH:
MSNBC host Symone Sanders Townsend announces live on air she’s quitting Dem Party over Schumer siding with GOP on spending bill https://t.co/08io42AIau pic.twitter.com/v8vua7aou3
— New York Post (@nypost) March 17, 2025
“There’s actually little that the Senate minority leader can say, and the 10 Democrats that voted with the Republicans can say, to appease somebody like me,” she said, complaining that Schumer and the others had “folded like a paper napkin” when push came to shove.
“I’m about to change my registration to independent, first and foremost,” Townsend continued, adding, “I’m pissed.”
She did reserve some praise for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and House Democrats, who voted against the CR with only one exception — Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME). “Shout out to High King Jeffries, though, because the congressional Democrats stayed together,” she said.
“In 2024, Democrats ran on warnings that Trump was going to destroy democracy, and now that he and his team are very much in the process of doing just that, these same politicians are questioning whether or not to stand up to him and his party at one of the first opportunities they have to meaningfully do so,” Townsend said. “The only opportunity, I would add, there’s not another option for Senate or Democratic or Senate Democrats or House Democrats to effectively push back. This was it! They blew it!”
Townsend warned that Schumer had likely awakened something within the party, adding, “The Democratic Tea Party was born the same day that Chuck Schumer took to that podium to read that very well-crafted statement that told us he folded like a paper napkin.”
