NBC News hired former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as a political analyst last week. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough wouldn’t have signed off on the move if he was asked beforehand.
While discussing the former Republican leader’s appearance on Meet the Press Sunday, Scarborough shared that he was not asked for his opinion on the matter. He added that he found out about the hiring like the rest of the world.
“I know you won’t be surprised to know that we’ve been inundated with calls this weekend — as have most people connected with this network — about NBC’s decision to hire her. We learned about the hiring when we read about it in the press on Friday,” said Scarborough.
“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 elector scheme and her pressuring election officials to not certify election results while Donald Trump was on the phone.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski attempted to clarify the position of the duo, claiming that “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. 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 said before airing a montage of McDaniel claiming that while President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, she believes it’s “fair to say there were problems” with the election.
Brzezinski’s admission that Ronna McDaniel wouldn’t appear on the Joe Scarborough-led show comes on the heels of a report that MSNBC President Rashida Jones told staffers that the former RNC chair — who was a vocal critic of the mainstream media during her tenure with the political party — wouldn’t contribute to the network.
