Former Republican
National Committee chair Ronna M
made her first appearance
on NBC
since being hired
by the network
as a paid political analyst,
and she fielded some tough quest
about her time with the RNC.
Do you disagree with Trump sayin
he's going to free those
who've been charged?
I do not think people who commit
violent acts on January
six should be freed.
So you disagree with that?
He's been saying that for months
Why not speak out earlier?
Why just speak out about that no
when you're the RNC chair?
You kind of take one for the who
right now.
I get to be a little bit
more myself, right?
This is what I believe.
I don't think violence should be
in our political discourse.
Republican or Democrat.
Meet the Press moderator Kristen
disclose at the top of her show
that McDaniel
scheduled this interview
before NBC News announced her hi
The show's
former host, Chuck Todd,
who is now the network's
chief political analyst.
While he was on the invited pane
and he didn't hold back
blasting the network's decision.
Take a listen.
Look,
let me deal with the elephant
in the room.
Yeah,
I think our bosses owe you an ap
for putting you in this situatio
because I don't know what to bel
She is now a paid contributor
by NBC News.
Well, I've no idea
whether any answer she gave to y
was because
she didn't want to mess up her c
She wants us to believe
that she was speaking for the RN
when the RNC was paying for it.
And look,
there's a reason
why there's a lot of journalists
at NBC News uncomfortable
with this because
many of our professional dealing
with the RNC over the last six y
have been met with gaslighting,
who have been met
with character assassination.
So it is
you know, that's where you begin
And so
when NBC made the decision to gi
NBC News credibility,
you got to ask yourself,
what is she bring?
NBC News.
If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Pr
being very candid.
senior media
reporter Oliver
Darcy, who joins us now
to discuss all of the fallout.
All right. So, Oliver, I mean, l
Is this about access
to Republican sources, as Chuck
Todd has claimed,
or are they trying to appeal
to Trump supporters with this hi
keeping a neutral reputation,
sort of
bring me into the world of why
they would hire
someone like Ronna McDaniel?
Sure.
I for one,
this is a five alarm fire for NB
This is a complete disaster.
The blowback they're getting,
I don't think
they anticipated
this much blowback where on Sund
they'd be dealing with this.
But look,
when they hired her,
they said basically that they wa
to represent the other side,
that she was an important voice
you know,
Trump Republicans
should be represented on the net
Now, of course,
there's a lot of holes in that a
And it really rubbed people
the wrong way inside
NBC News as well and inside MSNB
because Ronna McDaniel
is not any normal Republican, ri
She is someone who has spent yea
as head of the RNC
until recently when she departed
smearing NBC News journalists,
launching really ugly,
vile attacks on MSNBC host
and the network and organization
as a whole.
And more importantly,
she was an election denier.
You saw,
you know, back
when she was talking to Chris Wa
just last year,
she was unable to say
that Joe Biden legitimately
won the 2020 election.
And even worse,
she was helping Donald
Trump subvert the 2020 vote.
So not only was she an election
but she was an active participan
in this plot here.
And so
NBC News
journalists are obviously very u
And you're seeing that this morn
on Meet the Press
where Chuck Todd
gave voice
to some of that disappointment.
Let's take a listen.
And so
when NBC made the decision to gi
NBC News his credibility,
you got to ask yourself,
what does she bring NBC News?
And when we make deals like this
and I've been at this company
a long time, you're doing it for
And there you see Chuck Todd.
He ripped NBC News
and said that they owed
actually the current moderator
of Meet the Press.
Kristen Welker, an apology.
He said he disagreed
with the justification
NBC News has given to hire
Ronna McDaniel.
And, you know, this blowback
doesn't look like it's stopping
any time soon.
So at this point, I'm actually w
at what point does
NBC News
maybe do something here,
because this is really reaching
a crescendo,
if you will, and you know,
I think that they had thought
this was going to stop by Sunday
And in fact,
because of Chuck Todd earlier
today, it's gotten a lot worse.
And, you know, it
highlights an interesting issue,
I think, for
for a lot of news
organizations
or just a lot of organizations,
as we enter this election cycle,
you know,
potentially trying to hire
campaign insiders
or people who might have insight
into the way of thinking,
particularly in the and the Trum
Do you expect
more of these types of hires
to happen
across the news industry
as we get into further
into this election year?
Well, to be clear,
I don't think anyone would
be, you know, upset if MSNBC
came out and hire, let's say,
someone like Chris Christie,
who is a Republican
who was supportive of Donald Tru
until the January six insurrecti
I think the insurrection
and the election of 2020
is a pretty bright
red, clear line that news organi
don't cross.
You don't put an election denier
on your payroll.
Nevertheless, someone
who is smeared
your organization
attacked its credibility
repeatedly over the years.
And so that's the red line.
I think that people are upset
that was crossed here
very, very obviously crossed by
and inside the company.
You know,
I think as this
this grows,
there are going to be questions
about Cesar Conde,
who is the NBC Universal News Gr
and why he signed off on this.
You know,
there isn't really an NBC News
president anymore.
There's a weird structure there.
So at the end of the day,
the buck stops with him
and he's going to be facing
some of these questions
in the days ahead.
Well, we will see how this unfol
Thank you
for breaking all that down for u
Really appreciate it.
Oliver Darcy, thank you.