Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) on Thursday announced his intention to run for president in 2020. Democratic political operative Symone Sanders joined Biden's campaign as a senior advisor despite her previous comments about the Democrats not “needing white people leading” the party.
Apparently she doesn't want white people leading the Democratic Party...unless that person is Biden.
Sanders took to Twitter to make her announcement.
.@JoeBiden & @DrBiden are a class act. Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American ppl. He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right. PS - all stock photos aren’t created equal ??. https://t.co/JXvgEGHaRI
— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) April 25, 2019
Sanders worked on Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) presidential campaign in 2016. She served as his press secretary.
She made the comment about "white people leading" the party back in 2016 when she appeared on CNN to discuss the Democratic National Committee and the future of the Democratic Party. When asked about Howard Dean returning to run the DNC, she dismissed the idea, saying, "we don't need white people leading the Democratic party right now."
From Real Clear Politics (emphasis mine):
"Howard Dean is also on record maligning young people and millennials. Telling those Bernie folks they just need to get in line and maligning Bernie Sanders. And that is not what we need," Sanders said about the former party chairman.
"In my opinion we don't need white people leading the Democratic party right now," Sanders said. "The Democratic party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in leadership and throughout the staff, at the highest levels. From the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC."
"I think we need a robust discussion about this and I think we need to hear more from all the candidates," Sanders told CNN's Brianna Keilar. "Jaime Harrison of South Carolina, he's great, too. He's done real party building, but everybody doesn't necessarily know Jaime and they want to know what he stands for. So I want to hear more from everybody."
"I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks," she finished.
So...wait a minute.
The Democratic Party is more diverse in 2019 than it was in 2016. We have the largest number of women in Congress and a large number of those are minorities. If millennials and our country are going further to the left then why would Sanders suddenly decide to abandon the notion that whoever runs should be someone of color?
It's also interesting to see a progressive person to move to the middle and back someone more moderate like Joe Biden.
Sanders must have missed the memo: Joe is old, white and moderate. Isn't that what progressives want to see even less of?