MSNBC, NBC hosts and guests slam their own network over Ronna McDaniel hiring
Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, Chuck Todd and others are furious with NBC News for bringing on the ex-RNC chair as a paid contributor.
MSNBC morphed into an airing-of-grievances network on Monday when its biggest stars openly complained about NBC News hiring former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as a political analyst for all of its platforms.
NBC proudly announced on Friday that it had hired McDaniel, indicating she would also appear on staunchly liberal sister network MSNBC. NBC News political chief Carrie Budoff Brown said, "It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team," but MSNBC’s biggest stars didn’t agree and don’t appear to be concerned about shooting inside the tent.
After NBC's Chuck Todd lambasted network leadership over the hiring on "Meet the Press" Sunday, MSNBC's stars spent much of Monday lighting up McDaniel and their own bosses, even calling for her contract to be terminated.
"To be clear, we believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage," "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski said. "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."
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Nicolle Wallace, Jen Psaki, Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow are among the angry MSNBC hosts. (Getty Images)
"It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on ‘Morning Joe’ in her capacity as a paid contributor," Brzezinski added.
Later in the day, after Fox News Digital learned there was discussion among primetime hosts to address the hiring on the air, left-wing "Deadline: White House" host Nicolle Wallace blasted her employer.
"NBC News, either wittingly or unwittingly, is teaching election deniers that what they can do stretches well beyond appearing on our air in interviews to peddle lies about the sanctity and integrity of our elections, which Ronna McDaniel did on yesterday's ‘Meet the Press’… and they can do that as one of us, as badge-carrying employees of NBC News, as paid contributors to our sacred airwaves," Wallace said.
MSNBC regular David Jolly appeared on Wallace’s show to declare "viewers feel betrayed" by NBC hiring McDaniel.
MSNBC's Joy Reid said McDaniel is a "very, very well paid contributor" which has "alarmed many of us at this company." Her reported $300,000 salary has rankled staffers, Fox News Digital has learned.
Reid argued opposition toward McDaniel isn't about partisanship, citing vocal Trump foes Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney as Republicans she approves of. Reid's show almost exclusively focuses on slamming the Republican Party.
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MSNBCs Rachel Maddow blasted NBCs "inexplicable" decision to hire former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel. (Screenshot/MSNBC)
Jen Psaki, who served as President Biden’s press secretary before landing at MSNBC after a network bidding war for her services, objected to comparisons between her hire and McDaniel's.
"Our democracy is in danger because of the lies that people like Ronna McDaniel have pushed on this country," Psaki said of her new colleague.
Rachel Maddow, who only hosts her show on Monday nights in spite of a reported $30 million salary, got in her shots as well.
"I want to associate myself with all my colleagues both at MSNBC and NBC News who have voiced loud and principled objections to our company putting on the payroll someone who hasn't just attacked us as journalists but someone who is part of an ongoing project to get rid of our system of government," Maddow said.
"Someone who is still trying to convince Americans that this election stuff, it doesn't really work, that this last election, it wasn't a real result, that American elections are fraudulent," Maddow added.
Maddow confirmed speculation that MSNBC president Rashida Jones did not object to NBC's hiring of McDaniel but stressed she changed her tune when MSNBC staff "essentially unanimously and instantly expressed outrage" over the decision.
"Ronna McDaniel will not be on our air. Ronna McDaniel will not be on MSNBC," Maddow assured viewers.
"And I say that and give you that level of detail because there has been an effort since by other parts of the company to muddy that up in the press and make it seem like that's not what happened at MSNBC. I can assure you that is what happened at MSNBC. Ronna McDaniel will not appear on MSNBC, so says our boss since Saturday, and it has never been anything other than clear," she continued. "The fact that Ms. McDaniel is on the payroll at NBC News – to me that is inexplicable."
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MSNBCs Joy Reid said Ronna McDaniel is a "very, very well paid contributor" which has "alarmed many of us at this company." (MSNBC)
MSNBC’s cash cow then declared, "I mean you wouldn't hire a wise guy, you wouldn't hire a made man, like a mobster to work at a D.A.'s office, right? You wouldn't hire a pickpocket to work as a TSA screener. And so I find the decision to put her on the payroll inexplicable, and I hope they will reverse their decision."
"The Last Word" host Lawrence O’Donnell continued MSNBC’s thrashing of McDaniel, the niece of Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, later in the evening.
"MSNBC will not use Ronna McDaniel as a political analyst, but I do have a few questions for her whenever she might want to come on this program. And I’ll make it easy for her," O’Donnell said.
"I’ll tell her the questions ahead of time. My first question would be, ‘Why did you change your name for Donald Trump?’ Before Trump ran for president, her name was Ronna Romney McDaniel," he continued. "’How does that feel, to change her name to curry favor with the madman because he doesn’t like your uncle? How did you explain that to your kids? What lesson did your kids learn from that?’"
MSNBC declined comment when reached by Fox News Digital.
NBC News’ Chuck Todd exploded on his bosses for hiring former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel. (Screenshot/NBC/MeetThePress)
All the backlash from MSNBC hosts and anchors came the day after Todd exploded on his bosses Sunday on "Meet the Press."
"I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation, because I don't know what to believe," Todd told "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker following her interview with McDaniel.
Todd said he had no idea whether any answer McDaniel gave to Welker was because she didn't want to "mess up" her new contract.
"She has credibility issues that she still has to deal with," Todd said. "Is she speaking for herself or is she speaking on behalf of who's paying her?"
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Fox News Digital’s David Rutz and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.