MSNBC’s weeknight viewers got a preview of a new show on Monday as Symone Sanders-Townsend joined Inside with Jen Psaki guest host Michael Steele for a panel on the political ramifications of Elon Musk’s budget-cutting initiatives. The fact that the ex-RNC chairman is so at home on MSNBC, he is guest hosting the Biden White House press secretary’s show aside, Sanders-Townsend alleged the beginning of the Trump Administration is akin to the rise of Vladimir Putin in Russia.
Sanders-Townsend told her current weekend and future weekday co-host, “Can I just say one point because I know you're about to go. So, the point that you started with about why all the focus on Elon Musk. And we always talk about, kind of, some of these similarities between what's happening now and Russia in 2000 when Putin first came to power. We don't know any of the oligarchs’ names in Russia, but we know Putin, right? And so the problem, I think, with elevating and continuing to elevate Elon Musk so much in the messaging is that you miss the forest for one tree.”
Still, Sanders-Townsend had some advice for Democrats: focus on elected Republicans instead, “Elon Musk is not the goal. Republicans writ large, I would like to, I don't understand why in these messaging, in the messaging Democrats are not making Mike Johnson and Republicans in the House and Senate look like fools who are being pushed around by unelected billionaires that woke up one day and just decided to do politics.”
It is likely that Vladimir Putin's rise to power was helped by a false flag terrorist attack, so that isn’t the best analogy. Second, and more to the point, Russian oligarchy and corruption stem from state-owned businesses. Trying to replicate that here would not be compatible with the agenda of downsizing the federal government. In fact, it is the left that is freaking out over what Trump, Musk, and Republicans may do to PBS, NPR, the Postal Service, and Amtrak.
Here is a transcript for the March 10 show:
MSNBC Inside with Jen Psaki
3/10/2025
8:20 PM ET
SYMONE SANDERS-TOWNEND: They haven’t saved any money yet. Can I just say one point because I know you're about to go. So, the point that you started with about why all the focus on Elon Musk.
MICHAEL STEELE: Right.
SANDERS-TOWNSEND: And we always talk about, kind of, some of these similarities between what's happening now and Russia in 2000 when Putin first came to power. We don't know any of the oligarch’s names in Russia, but we know Putin, right? And so the problem, I think, with elevating and continuing to elevate Elon Musk so much in the messaging is that you miss the forest for one tree.
Elon Musk is not the goal. Republicans writ large, I would like to, I don't understand why, in these messaging, in the messaging Democrats are not making Mike Johnson and Republicans in the House and Senate look like fools who are being pushed around by unelected billionaires that woke up one day and just decided to do politics. Like that's some of the stuff.
