MSNBC host, ex-Biden aide demands expulsion of 'election deniers' from Congress
Former Biden aide-turned-MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend said election deniers in Congress should be expelled like 'Confederates.'
MSNBC hosts Joy Reid and Symone Sanders-Townsend declared Monday that election deniers should be "expelled" from Congress and treated like post-Civil War Confederates.
"Joy, I was watching your show earlier today and you talked about how post-Civil War, the folks who sided with the Confederate members of Congress, they were taken care of, they were expelled," Sanders-Townsend, a former senior advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris, told her MSNBC colleague.
"In this Congress, there are multiple individuals that conspired, that were willing to move hell and high water to disrupt the peaceful transition of power," Sanders-Townsend continued. "My fear, and frankly I think the fear of many Americans out there, is that nothing is going to happen to them."
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MSNBC’s Symone Sanders-Townsend believes anyone who tried to "disrupt the peaceful transition of power" should be expelled from office. (JP Yim/Getty Images )
Reid lamented that Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has been critical of the committee, has six more years "to do whatever shenanigans he feels like doing in Congress" after he was re-elected in November.
In July, Johnson said the hypocrisy of Democrats is "jaw-dropping" because they continue to push for charges against former President Donald Trump but downplay potential misconduct by Hunter Biden.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid said it’s "a huge problem for our democracy that we still have what amount to insurrectionists serving" in Congress. (Screenshot/MSNBC)
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"It’s actually a huge problem for our democracy that we still have what amount to insurrectionists serving," Reid said.
Some Republicans have noted Democrats in Congress challenged election results in 2000, 2004 and 2016 – all years Republicans were elected president – without being labeled "deniers."
The conversation came as MSNBC covered the special House committee’s final hearing on the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. The committee released a 154-page executive summary detailing its impetus for referring criminal charges against Trump to the Justice Department.
The panel, which is made up of seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, argued during the committee's final meeting that Trump's conduct before and after Jan. 6 was "unlawful."
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris walks with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and then-Spokesperson Symone Sanders-Townsend to board Air Force Two at El Paso International Airport in El Paso, Texas, U.S., June 25, 2021. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
The committee claims that even after legal challenges to overturn the 2020 election failed, Trump pressured the Justice Department and state officials into decertifying the results. That push, according to the committee, culminated in demands that then-Vice President Mike Pence reject Electoral College votes from states won by President Biden.
The unprecedented criminal referral holds no official legal weight, and a final determination on whether to pursue the charges will be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland. However, Reid and Symone Sanders-Townsend want lawmakers who sided with the former president to be treated like post-Civil War Confederates.
Sanders-Townsend announced last year she would step down from her position within the White House. She joined MSNBC shortly after.
Fox News’ Haris Alic and David Rutz contributed to this report.
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