Symone Sanders-Townsend has described leaving Vice President Kamala Harris’s office as a personal and professional decision: she was tired, wanted time to plan her wedding, and hoped to speak in her own voice about politics and culture. She did not say she had a television career mapped out from the start. The phrase “It Was My Time” is not verified as her exact wording in the cited interviews.
Why did Symone Sanders leave Harris’s office?
In a 2022 interview with ELLE’s Madison Feller, Sanders-Townsend said she did not initially know what she would do after the White House. “I would like to tell you that I had it all planned out,” she said, before explaining that she had not known television would be her next step.
She gave two personal reasons for considering a change: “I was tired,” and she wanted the opportunity to plan her wedding and enjoy being engaged. She also wanted a different kind of work. Sanders-Townsend said she loved politics but wanted room to discuss broader cultural trends and offer her own opinions.
She wanted to speak in her own voice
Before moving into television, Sanders-Townsend had spent much of her career speaking on behalf of other people. In ELLE, she described the contrast this way: “I spent my career being a spokesperson for other people,” followed by, “And now it’s just me.”
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That shift helps explain why she sought a hosting role rather than simply another communications job. In the same interview, she recalled that MSNBC president Rashida Jones asked what she wanted to do next. Sanders-Townsend said she wanted a show.
From the vice president’s office to MSNBC
Axios reported on December 2, 2021, citing three White House officials, that Sanders was expected to leave Harris’s office by the end of that year. Axios identified her as a senior adviser and chief spokesperson. TIME later described her service in the role as ending in December 2021.
On January 10, 2022, The Washington Post reported that MSNBC had hired her for a weekend show and appearances on Peacock. TIME reported in May 2022 that her show, Symone, was planned for a May launch, with a weekday version on Peacock. These reports document the transition from the White House to a hosting job; they do not establish internal conflict as the reason she left.
How her hosting role changed
Sanders-Townsend later co-hosted The Weekend with Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez. In February 2025, The Washington Post reported that the trio would move to a weekday program in the 7 p.m. hour. That is a dated lineup report, not confirmation of the network’s current schedule.
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What “It Was My Time” does—and does not—establish
The phrase in the original headline is not confirmed as a verbatim quote in the cited interview coverage. Her documented explanation is more specific: she felt tired, wanted to enjoy her engagement and plan her wedding, and wanted work that let her discuss politics and culture in her own voice. The available reporting supports those stated reasons, not a claim that office tensions drove her departure.
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