Chuck Todd Presses MSNBC Colleague Symone Sanders on WH Mask Rule Stumbles: What Happened to Declaring Covid Independence?

NBC’s Chuck Todd had an engaging conversation with Symone Sanders about whether the Biden administration has become too timid, and whether they badly handled the end of mask mandates.

Sanders, a former senior advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris about to join MSNBC, joined Todd on Wednesday to talk about whether the White House has become timid because of the agenda setbacks President Joe Biden has seen since taking office. Todd made this point while noting how Democrats might be facing a “brutal midterm election cycle” in the coming months.

Much of the conversation with Sanders, Phil Rucker and Jim Dornan revolved around how the White House responded to a federal judge’s decision to strike down mask rules for public transportation. Todd panned the White House for not putting up a more substantial fight to the ruling, and he asked Sanders why Biden isn’t being more vocal about defending their policies.

“They don’t even want to get in front of this, and I can’t help but wonder is it because of the snakepit-ness of what happened when they declared independence too quick?” Todd said. This was a reference to how Biden called for 2021’s Fourth of July to be the day when America could “mark our independence from this virus.”

Sanders responded by pointing out the White House is still enforcing mask rules, and the administration is still trying to adhere to the CDC’s recommendations.

“Is this overcorrecting?” Todd asked, to which, Sanders responded “I don’t know it is overcorrecting. I think we’re all going through this together. You can’t fault the White House. They got news of the judicial ruling along with everyone else. And what they did was roll with the punches and I think rolled with the punches very well.”

The conversation continued to revolve around whether the Biden administration was “overcorrecting” from former President Donald Trump’s lax response to Covid. Todd and Dornan also wondered how the White House didn’t see this coming when the judge was a Trump appointee.

“It shouldn’t have been a surprise,” Todd said, “and yet, it did seem like they were caught a bit flatfooted.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.