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NBC chief political analyst Chuck Todd on Sunday publicly slammed the company’s decision to hire Ronna McDaniel in a stunning on-air moment immediately following the former RNC chair’s network debut.
“Let me deal with the elephant in the room. I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,” Todd told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker, who previously interviewed McDaniel, during a subsequent panel discussion.
“Look, 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 six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination,” Todd added.
Todd further praised Welker, who took over as host of NBC’s flagship Sunday show when he moved into a new role last year, while blasting NBC’s decision-makers for putting her in “an impossible situation.”
“I think you did everything you could do. You got put into an impossible situation, booking this interview and then all of a sudden the rug [is] pulled out from under you, you find out she’s being paid to show up. That is unfortunate for this program,” Todd said.
Todd joined other prominent voices at and outside the company who have publicly criticized NBC’s decision to hire McDaniel, who repeatedly criticized the media and for months supported former President Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. McDaniel first clearly acknowledged Biden’s victory almost a year after the election.
MSNBC columnist Marisa Kabas slammed the move in an email she said she sent to NBC, which she also posted on social media.
“As columnists we are held to strict standards of factuality and truth, and are expected to have a fundamental understanding of our democracy,” Kabas wrote. “McDaniel has proven time and again she adheres to none of those values, and lacks that very basic understanding.”
“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,’” former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan posted on X, formerly Twitter, in the wake of the news.
On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that McDaniel would not be appearing on MSNBC as part of her role.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this report misspelled Mehdi Hasan’s name.
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