Symone Sanders continues to do well for herself in American politics despite being a know-nothing cable news troll. Then again, I suppose being an ignorant troll is now a prerequisite for political success in the United States.
Sanders, who served previously as national press secretary to Sen. Bernie Sanders’, I-Vt., failed 2016 presidential campaign, will join the 2020 Democratic primary as a senior adviser to former Vice President Joe Biden, who announced his candidacy Thursday morning.
For a campaign that already faces hurdles on account of its candidate’s penchant for creating unflattering headlines with offhand remarks, it is a bold move bringing on an adviser who is similarly missing the filter between her brain and her mouth. Sanders, you may recall is the same political strategist and cable news pundit who claimed in February 2018 that President Trump likely “would have done something” had the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter been black or brown. Earlier, after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Sanders claimed, “We have put white supremacy in the White House thanks to Donald Trump.”
Her brand of commentary is basically this but on repeat.
In 2016, for example, after a white Trump supporter was dragged from his car and beaten by a mob in Chicago, she attacked Trump for calling on his supporters to cease committing hate crimes and violence in his name.
“The audacity of privileged white people to sit on national television and question if hate crimes are happening, to just flippantly say ‘stop it, it’s not okay,’ and not put any action behind those words, it’s appalling to me. It’s actually appalling,” she said.
She also downplayed the beating by referring to it as a political “protest.” When asked how dragging a man from his car and beating him constitutes legitimate protest, she responded, “Oh my goodness, poor white people! Please!”
“We can’t call for people to be peaceful when the rhetoric that has been used is not peaceful, when people don’t feel peaceful in their home,” she reiterated, seemingly approving of the beating.
Later, in 2017, after a video surfaced showing four young black adults torturing a mentally disabled white man while screaming “Fuck Donald Trump! Fuck white people!” Sanders initially downplayed the seriousness of the incident, warning that “we cannot callously go about classifying things as a hate crime.” She went on to argue that “anytime someone says or does something egregious or bad and sickening” in connection with the Trump “or even President Obama” that “is not a hate crime.” Sanders backtracked later and said she agreed the torture constituted a hate crime, having seen “all the details.”
This is to say nothing of her criticisms of the man she now calls her employer.
“[W]e don’t need white people leading the Democratic Party right now,” she said shortly after the 2016 presidential election.
Then, there is this gem from 2018: “Anita Hill because she is a Black woman did not have the luxury of vulnerability before the all-white male Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991.” Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearing.
Hell, even her confirming Thursday morning that she has been brought on by the Biden 2020 campaign included a not-so-ringing endorsement of the former vice president.
“Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American [people],” she tweeted. “He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right.”
Slap “He won’t always be perfect” on a campaign button and I am sold!
On top of having to answer for Biden’s own history of off-color remarks, his campaign will likely also have to answer for one of its top advisers, all of which will no doubt be a great use of their time and resources, should they ever go up against a Republican president who is incapable of feeling shame and feels no compulsion whatsoever to explain or clarify himself.
Bold hire, Joe!
