Exclusive: Symone Sanders, Eugene Daniels launch new podcast 'Clock It'

Symone Sanders Townsend and Eugene Daniels are close friends, MS NOW anchors and now co-hosts of "Clock It," a new podcast that aims to mix politics with pop culture.

The audio series debuting Feb. 12 is a perfect fit for the Washington, DC stars, both 36.

One of the first openly gay Black men to host a cable news program, Daniels has become a DC fashion icon during his rise to fame in the nation's capital, known for its drab dressing.

Self-described as "bald" and a "lash and nail enthusiast," Sanders Townsend is instantly recognizable to some Americans for her style, social media presence and past surrogacy for Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

The Beyoncé superfans' buzzy venture comes as MS NOW's parent company, Versant, and other cable companies seek to reach new audiences in the rapidly changing TV news landscape, three months after its split from NBCUniversal.

Pop culture and politics "have always been inextricably intertwined, and this particular president and this particular climate that we're in now, I feel like it's been supercharged," Sanders Townsend said Jan. 29, one day after rap superstar Nicki Minaj appeared onstage with President Donald Trump.

'He never backed down'

Now BFFs, Sanders Townsend's and Daniels' relationship faced a rough start. The duo, young for their career trajectories, first met at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Sanders Townsend worked as national press secretary for the Vermont progressive U.S. senator of the same surname, and Daniels was a political reporter at Newsy.

Spokespeople like Sanders Townsend are often oppositional and focused on spinning their candidates' angles to reporters like Daniels, but healthy working relationships make things flow more smoothly for both sides. "The reporters had a job to do, and so did I, and Eugene was one of the people that – you know what – he never backed down, and I always appreciated that about him," Sanders Townsend recalled.

Sanders Townsend later joined Biden's 2020 presidential campaign; by that time, Daniels was a reporter at Politico. After Biden was elected POTUS, Sanders Townsend was hired as chief spokesperson and senior advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris. During Harris's time as vice president, Daniels covered her and was named an author of Playbook, a must-read for Washington insiders about the inside-the-Beltway news of the day.

A year into her role as a Harris senior staffer, Sanders Townsend departed government and joined MSNBC, now known as MS NOW, to host "Symone." Then she anchored "The Weekend" with longtime anchor Alicia Menendez and former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele.

When the trio left the weekend behind last year for "The Weeknight," airing daily Monday through Friday, Daniels left Politico and replaced Sanders Townsend on "Weekend." He co-hosts the Saturday-Sunday program with Washington Post alumni Jonathan Capehart and Jackie Alemany.

Daniels called their ability to "be ourselves" amid their mutual ascent at the network "a surprising thing."

"I don't know that I thought that you would see two people that look, sound, act like us, the two of us, being able to do what we're doing at MS NOW," Daniels told USA TODAY.

Trump 'has been chasing the culture his entire life'

Sanders Townsend, a "Real Housewives" aficionado, and Daniels, an Oprah admirer, will combine topics of the day, like what's happening on Capitol Hill, with the latest in Hollywood and beyond.

"People often forget, you know, Donald Trump at one point was the most mentioned name in rap music," Sanders Townsend said, adding that "it was positive when they were mentioning him and he has been chasing the culture his entire life."

The tea will be served up first (with a side of shade) on "Clock It." While filming a pilot episode with Daniels last month, Sanders Townsend explained they started with the recent Golden Globes instead of hard news. "I was up waiting to see Michael B. Jordan win because the man played three people, two twins and a vampire," Sanders Townsend said of the actor's Oscar buzzworthy performance in the Ryan Coogler picture "Sinners."

The pair also plan to discuss the highly anticipated Super Bowl LX halftime show featuring Bad Bunny, the recent Grammy album of the year recipient. A former D1 collegiate football player at Colorado State University, Daniels credited MS NOW executives Rebecca Kutler and Madeleine Haeringer for letting the pair be authentic on air and on the new podcast project.

"They understand that you can be both kind of obsessed with culture and big hair, or no hair ... and fabulous on one end and care about skincare but then be a really serious person who also cares deeply about where this country is going," Daniels said.

"I think you can be all of those things," Daniels said.

Clock that.