NBC News has decided to "part ways" with former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, just days after it was announced that they had hired her.
McDaniel was reportedly also dropped by the Creative Artists Agency, the talent agency responsible for the NBC deal.
The termination comes after massive public uproar from many of NBC and MSNBCs biggest pundits.
“After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor,” NBC News Group chairman Cesar Conde wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon, according to a report from the Hollywood Reporter. “No organization, particularly a newsroom, can succeed unless it is cohesive and aligned. Over the last few days, it has become clear that this appointment undermines that goal.”
McDaniel was hired as an on-air contributor by NBC on March 22.
On Sunday, McDaniel was interviewed by Kirsten Welker on Meet the Press.
Moments after the interview concluded, Todd told Welker, “I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation.”
Todd then went fully scorched earth on his network.
“She is now a paid contributor by NBC news,” Todd said. “I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract. She wants us to believe that she was speaking for the RNC when the RNC was paying for it. So she has credibility issues that she still has to deal with. Is she speaking for herself or is she speaking on behalf of who’s paying her? Once at the RNC, she did say that. Hey, I’m speaking for the party. I get that that’s part of the job. So, what about here?”
Todd told Welker, “I think your interview, did a good job of exposing, I think, many of the contradictions.” “I think our bosses owe you an apology.” Chuck Todd absolutely rips NBC for hiring Ronna McDaniel, while on NBC. (Video: NBC) pic.twitter.com/ojvz7nqqEE
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) March 24, 2024
The blistering rebuke of her hiring did not stop there. Todd went on to say that many of his colleagues are upset that she has been hired.
“Look, there’s a reason why there’s a lot of journalists at NBC News are uncomfortable with this,” Todd said. “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.”
Over the next few days, other hosts would also speak out against the hiring, including Mika Brzeznski, Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, Nicolle Wallace, and Lawrence O’Donnell.
“I mean, you wouldn’t hire a wiseguy, you wouldn’t hire a made man like a mobster to work at a DA’s office, right?” Maddow said during her monologue about McDaniel's hiring. “You wouldn’t hire a pickpocket to work as a TSA screener. And so I find the decision to put her on the payroll, it’s inexplicable, and I hope they will reverse their decision.”
In May, McDaniel posted on X calling MSNBC's pundits "primetime propagandists." MSNBC’s primetime propagandists wasted countless hours pushing the Russia collusion hoax.
Last night, they discussed Durham's report for barely 10 minutes, in which they insisted the weaponization of government found in the report was no big deal.
— Ronna McDaniel (@RonnaMcDaniel) May 16, 2023
