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NBC News’ hiring of former Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel as an analyst touched off an uproar over the weekend with media progressives, including former and current MSNBC figures who were appalled at the Donald Trump acolyte appearing on the liberal channel.
And it looks like she won’t, as the Wall Street Journal reported that McDaniel won’t appear on MSNBC after network president Rashida Jones reassured upset staffers. Two MSNBC insiders confirmed to Fox News Digital they had also heard she wouldn’t come on the channel amid fierce backlash to her hiring at NBC. She will be interviewed Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press” in her first media appearance since resigning as RNC chair; MSNBC is NBC’s left-leaning cable affiliate.
Carrie Budoff Brown, who oversees NBC News political coverage, touted McDaniel’s hiring in a memo on Friday that immediately raised eyebrows. Some figures on the right called McDaniel a sellout, but it was on the left that the anger was truly pronounced.
“It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team,” Brown wrote, noting she would contribute across all NBC News platforms. “As we gear up for the longest general election season in recent memory, she will support our leading coverage by providing an insider’s perspective on national politics and on the future of the Republican Party—which she led through some of the most turbulent and challenging moments in political history.”
EX-RNC BOSS RONNA MCDANIEL FINDS NEW HOME AT NBC, MSNBC AS POLITICAL ANALYST
Ex-RNC chair Ronna McDaniel. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
McDaniel resigned as RNC chair earlier this month after a tenure marked by her closeness to former President Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported Jones told employees that MSNBC has no plans to have McDaniel on the channel, despite NBC’s announcement she would appear on NBC News platforms. It’s common for analysts and contributors to appear across both channels, and McDaniel’s pro-Trump voice would be a unique perspective that’s largely missing on their programs.
But it’s not to be on MSNBC. One insider there told it was “mind-boggling that anyone thought this hire was appropriate.”
MSNBC columnist Marisa Kabas posted on Blue Sky an email she sent to NBC expressing her disappointment with McDaniel’s hiring, calling it “appalling.” Another columnist, Andrea Grimes, supported the letter and added “F— this.”
Former MSNBC hosts and commentators also erupted at the announcement.
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Mehdi Hasan, the former host who quit MSNBC in January after he was demoted to analyst and fill-in roles, noted McDaniel had previously torn into the cable outlet she could now appear on.
Mehdi Hasan, who left MSNBC last month, was critical of NBC News hiring Ronna McDaniel as an analyst. (David Livingston/Getty Images)
“McDaniel lied about the 2020 election result, was involved in a pressure campaign to get Michigan officials not to certify the vote, and has accused MSNBC of ‘spreading lies’ and employing ‘primetime propagandists,'” he wrote on X Friday.
Last year, McDaniel ripped MSNBC in an X post, saying “MSNBC’s primetime propagandists wasted countless hours pushing the Russia collusion hoax” and accusing it of downplaying revelations from the John Durham investigation.
Former MSNBC analyst Steve Schmidt, the ex-Republican strategist who co-founded the Lincoln Project, called NBC out for a “disgusting and cynical decision” and McDaniel herself a “wretched and lying woman.”
“NBC News and MSNBC just immolated their journalistic credibility. I spent 10 years as an analyst at MSNBC. Today, I’m ashamed of that for the first time. Disgusting,” he fumed.
Ex-MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, never shy to tear into his former network, called McDaniel an “utterly dishonest fascist” and accused top talent like Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell of succumbing to her hiring before reports that McDaniel wouldn’t appear on MSNBC.
“I’m utterly ashamed of them,” he wrote on X.
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Outside of MSNBC, others also piled on the announcement.
Media critic Jeff Jarvis said social media users should collectively boo MSNBC every time she appeared, if she did.
Then-RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel speaks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Institute’s “A Time for Choosing Speaker Series” at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on April 20, 2023 in Simi Valley, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)
“Hiring Ronna McDaniel is a terrible decision,” liberal commentator David Rothkopf wrote on X. “Having a range of views is useful. But hiring a proven serial liar is disastrous. NBC is and must be, first and foremost, in the credibility business. She will compromise that every time she appears on air. She cannot be trusted.”
Chief among McDaniel’s sins in the eyes of progressives was her stoking the idea that the 2020 election was not on the level. She told CNN last year that President Biden had not “won it fair,” although she acknowledged his victory. Under her guidance, the RNC helped Trump fight his election losses in the courts, and she testified about her role in arranging “contingent” electors if the campaign had successfully overturned its defeats, according to the Washington Post.
She backed off full-throatedly endorsing stolen election theories but did tout “election integrity” efforts going forward during her tenure, which saw Republicans suffer three straight disappointing election results in 2018, 2020 and 2022.
Another former RNC chair, Michael Steele, is a weekend host for MSNBC and often appears as a commentator, but he is a strong foe of the modern GOP.
NBC News didn’t return a request for comment.
David Rutz is a senior editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @davidrutz.
