Joe Biden's senior adviser in 2016: 'We don't need white people leading the Democratic Party right now'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}One of Joe Biden’s newly-hired senior advisers has seemingly had a very recent change of heart.
Symone Sanders, a prominent Democratic strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., staffer in 2016, was announced as one of the big-name members of Team Biden on Thursday.
But Sanders, who has also served as a CNN contributor, is seen in resurfaced footage from November 2016 expressing her opposition to a white person leading her party after Donald Trump's election.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“In my opinion, we don't need white people leading the Democratic Party right now,” Sanders told host Brianna Keilar during a discussion on Howard Dean potentially becoming DNC chairman.
BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS' SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER
“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,” she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sanders wrapped up her remarks by saying: “I want to hear more from everybody. I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks.”
Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.
After news of her hiring broke on Thursday, Sanders backed her new boss on Twitter.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“@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,” she wrote.
The hiring of Sanders has been viewed as another indication of the expected tough fight that Biden and Sanders are in for as the two frontrunners battle a deep Democratic field.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While Sanders himself didn’t torch Biden as he jumped into the race, it’s clear that many of his progressive supporters view the former vice president as a threat.
Biden’s entry into the race – at least in the early going – sets up a battle between himself and Sanders, who thanks to his fierce fight with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination, enjoys name ID on the level of the former vice president.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Justice Democrats -- who also called Biden “out-of-touch” – is an increasingly influential group among the left of the party. They’ve championed progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as well as Sanders. The group was founded by members of Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.
Biden has pushed back against the perception that he's a moderate in a party that's increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”
And Biden said he'd stack his record against "anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile – a Fox News contributor – highlighted that “Joe Biden can occupy his own lane in large part because he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to call himself whatever.”
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But she emphasized that “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future…I do believe he has the right ingredients. The question is can he find enough people to help him stir the pot.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News Andrew O'Reilly and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.