The hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” criticized parent network NBC News’ recent hiring of former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel.
McDaniel made her first appearance as a paid contributor of NBC on Sunday’s “Meet the Press.”
Minutes after her interview aired, a panel of journalists on “Meet the Press” questioned the credibility of her answers and railed against network executives for their decision to hire her.
“I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,” NBC News Chief Political Analyst Chuck Todd told the show’s host, Kristen Welker.
“There’s a reason why there’s a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination,” Todd continued.
On Monday morning, “Morning Joe” hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough shared similar sentiments.
“We learned about the hiring when we read about it in the press on Friday,” Scarborough said on air. “We weren’t asked our opinion of the hiring, but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it for several reasons — including but not limited to, as lawyers might say, Miss McDaniel’s role in Donald Trump’s fake electors scheme and her pressuring election officials to not certify election results while Donald Trump was on the phone.”
“We believe NBC News should seek out conservative, Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage, but it should be conservative Republicans — not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier,” Brzezinski continued. “And we hope NBC will reconsider its decision.”
“It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on ‘Morning Joe’ in her capacity as a paid contributor,” Brzezinski added.
