MSNBC host Symone Sanders Townsend set to quit Democratic Party over Chuck Schumer’s GOP support
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: MSNBC host and longtime Democratic strategist Symone Sanders Townsend announced on live television that she is leaving the Democratic Party.
Her decision stems from frustration with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer siding with Republicans on a recent spending bill.
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
Symone Sanders Townsend blasts Chuck Schumer and Party leadership
During a panel discussion on 'The Weekend', Symone Sanders Townsend said, “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.”
The former press secretary for Senator Bernie Sanders and senior adviser to both former president Joe Biden and former vice president Kamala Harris did not hold back in her critique of Schumer.
“I’m about to change my registration to independent, first and foremost,” she told her stunned panelists, adding, “I’m pissed.”
She specifically took issue with the bill’s cuts to Washington, DC funding, where she resides.
Sanders Townsend expressed outrage that Schumer had initially signaled Democratic unity in opposing the Republican-backed proposal, only to ultimately support it.
Democratic infighting and backlash
Chuck Schumer’s decision to support the GOP-led continuing resolution to maintain government funding has caused major backlash among Democrats.
“Shout out to High King Jeffries, though, because the congressional Democrats stayed together,” Sanders Townsend said, praising House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
However, she had little patience for Schumer and other key Senate Democrats.
“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,” she fumed.
Democrats split over GOP spending bill
Chuck Schumer’s decision to support the bill, which passed with a 54-46 vote, has left many Democratic lawmakers and political analysts frustrated, according to Daily Mail.
The bill, signed into law by President Trump, includes billions in spending cuts and comes amid sweeping federal layoffs initiated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“This was it! They blew it!” Sanders Townsend said, emphasizing that the Democratic Party had a prime chance to push back but failed to act.
“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,” she added.
