After being on the frontlines of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, Symone Sanders’s good friend recently admitted how “hurt” she was by the press secretary snub.
A Washington Post feature on Sanders and her fiancé, D.C.’s director of culture and nightlife Shawn Townsend, unearthed Sanders’ feelings of being “stung” after Biden chose former Obama communications director Jen Psaki for the press secretary job, The Hill
ata-slot="/21868623726/site264.tmus/amp2" data-multi-size="320x50,300x250" data-multi-size-validation="false" rtc-config='{"vendors": {"prebidappnexuspsp": {"PLACEMENT_ID": "27198239"}}, "timeoutMillis": 500}'> reports.The couple’s mutual friend, civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, confirmed the senior adviser to Vice President Harris was reportedly “hurt” after being passed over for the White House press secretary job.
“She was definitely hopeful that she would have that opportunity,” Sellers revealed in the feature released on saturday.
Sanders’ work in the last two presidential elections includes campaigning
for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2016 election before working as an adviser on President Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. She stood by his side and publicly defended him after Biden’s controversial comments telling the Black community that if they didn’t vote for him, “then you ain’t Black.”“The comments made at the end of the Breakfast Club interview were in jest, but let’s be clear about what the VP was saying: he was making the distinction that he would put his record with the African American community up against Trump’s any day. Period,” Sanders tweeted in May 2020.
But her damage control for Biden didn’t prove to be enough to become his press secretary.
“These moments were not few and far between,” Sellers said in the feature. “They would send Symone out to take those bullets. … And then to be passed over, that hurt.”
In her memoir, Sanders has admitted to wanting to become the first Black press secretary. Sellers revelations come one week after Psaki announced her plans to step down from the press secretary role next year, Business Insider reports.
But with Sanders working as Kamala Harris’s senior adviser, she told the Post she is “happy where I am and with what I’m doing,” adding, “And it’s keeping me very very busy!”