NBC to remove Ronna McDaniel as a contributor after internal objections against the former RNC chair

Former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel was ousted from her position as a paid analyst for NBC News only days after her hiring was announced. Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, announced Ronna's exit and took full responsibility for her hiring in a memo sent to staffers on Tuesday, March 26.

Conde made it clear that the hiring undermined NBC's goal. McDaniel's hiring prompted a wave of on-air and internal criticism from prominent MSNBC personalities, including Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, and Joe Scarborough. Ronna's support of Donald Trump and involvement in his election interference efforts were major contributors to the backlash.

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The quick rise and fall of Ronna McDaniel in NBC

On Friday, March 22, NBC announced the signing of former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid analyst. The following Sunday, she was scheduled for an unrelated interview with Kristen Walker on NBC News' Meet The Press. The signing prompted a major internal backlash in the company, visible via the various statements of protest by MSNBC personalities on air.

Ronna procured the position of RNC leader back in 2017, hand-picked by Donald Trump, and served in the role until two weeks ago, when she was replaced with new Trump-hand-picked leaders. Michael Whatley was the new national chairman of the RNC, and Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was the co-chair.

The internal and external criticism of McDaniel's hiring focused on Ronna's support of Donald Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the results and his theories that the 2020 presidential elections were rigged. She was also the RNC chair when Republican Congress members Adam Kisinger and Liz Chaney were censured for joining the House January 6 committee.

During her Meet The Press segment, Ronna disagreed with Trump's proposed pardon of the January 6 rioters and claimed that Joe Biden won the 2020 elections 'fair and square,' which came in stark contrast to her past viewpoint. Later in the segment, after the interview, Chuck Todd appeared on a panel and ripped apart NBC's decision to hire McDaniel. He said:

"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 last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination."

He added:

"When we make deals like this, and I've been at this company a long time, you're doing it for access to an audience, sometimes it's access to an individual. And we can have a journalistic ethics debate about it. I'm willing to have that debate."

During Monday's Deadline White House on MSNBC, Nicolle Wallace also expressed her disdain for the decision to hire Ronna McDaniel. She said:

"NBC News is, either wittingly or unwittingly, teaching election deniers that what they can do stretches well beyond appearing on our air and interviews to peddle lies about the sanctity and integrity of our elections."

She added:

"What we’ve also said to election deniers is not just that they can do that on our airwaves, but they can do that as one of us, a badge carrying employee of NBC News, as paid contributors to our sacred airwaves."

Rachel Maddow, on her MSNBC show on Monday, shared the same sentiment. She called the decision to hire McDaniel "inexplicable." She said that the decision was met with unanimous outrage from all MSNBC staff. The company, however, made it clear that Ronna will not appear on MSNBC. Maddow said:

"You wouldn’t hire a wiseguy, you wouldn’t hire a made man like a mobster to work in a D.A.’s office, right? You wouldn’t hire a pickpocket to work as a TSA screener. So I find her decision to put her on the payroll inexplicable, and I hope they will reverse their decision."

Finally, after even more criticism from Jen Psaki, Joe Scarborough, and a few others, NBC Universal News Group chairman Cesar Conde announced via a memo sent to staffers on Tuesday that Ronna McDaniel would no longer be a contributor at NBC News. He stated in the memo:

"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."

He added:

"I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down. While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it."

Conde revealed that Ronna McDaniel's initial hiring was due to a commitment towards presenting audiences with a wide set of viewpoints on the political spectrum, a decision they were still committed to. After the news broke, Rachel Maddow stated on MSNBC that she had a "deep respect."

"I think it is a show of strength, and I think it is a show of respect for the people who work at this company…that leadership was willing to change on this,"

She further clarified:

"It's not about hiring a Republican, it's not even about hiring somebody who has Trump ties. This was a really specific case because of Ms. McDaniel's involvement in the election interference stuff,"

Apart from being ousted by NBC, according to confirmation of sources to both Axios and Deadline, Ronna McDaniel was also dropped by the Creative Arts Agency (CAA).