NBC leaders scrambled Monday to contain an escalating rebel after some of the country’s most high-profile TV hosts took the weird step of criticizing the network on its own airwaves for hiring Ronna McDaniel, former chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, for a political job analyst.
A day after Chuck Todd stunned executives on Sunday by condemning Ms. McDaniel’s nomination on “Meet the Press,” Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski opened “Morning Joe,” one of essentially the most influential programs on MSNBC, by criticizing Ms. McDaniel. The hosts called her an “anti-democratic election denier” and urged her bosses to reconsider hiring her.
“We were inundated with calls this weekend, as were most people associated with this network, about NBC’s decision to hire her,” Scarborough told viewers. “We were not asked our opinion on employment, but if we had been, we would have strongly opposed this decision for several reasons.”
Executives were bracing for an additional wave of on-air criticism on Monday, when two other MSNBC stars, Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow, host their shows.
The rebel was not limited to marquis talents. At NBC headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, several rank-and-file employees began a discussion about continuing to pressure the network’s management against Ms. McDaniel, said a person with knowledge of the discussions.
The firestorm surrounding Ms. McDaniel, who recently stepped down from the Republican National Committee on the urging of former President Donald J. Trump, underscores the challenges facing news organizations that seek to incorporate pro-Trump voices of their elections: One-year coverage, at a moment of intense partisanship and tribalism amongst voters and viewers.
NBC’s news division also must balance a wide selection of audiences: viewers of NBC News, the network’s traditional reporting arm, and fans of its cable cousin MSNBC, a 24-hour channel that emphasizes left-wing opinions.
Representatives of the network declined to comment on Monday.
Ms. McDaniel met a pair of top NBC News executives — Carrie Budoff Brown, who oversees NBC News’ political coverage, and Rebecca Blumenstein, president of NBC News — when the network hosted the Republican primary last 12 months. (Ms. Blumenstein is a former editor of The New York Times.) Ms. Brown announced Ms. McDaniel’s hiring on Friday, writing in a memo that “there could not be a more important time to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team.” “
NBC executives believed Ms. McDaniel — who has both supported and clashed with Mr. Trump and is also from the Romney Republican dynasty — would provide a helpful perspective for viewers seeking to understand the views of conservative voters, three people with knowledge of the matter said, internal conversations said.
Rashida Jones, president of MSNBC, was notified of the hire, and Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, signed the contract, the people said. Ms. McDaniel’s contract is worth about $300,000 a year, said one of the people familiar with the talks.
Employing Washington agents as commentators is typical practice at major television networks; For example, ABC News recently hired Reince Priebus, Trump’s former chief of staff. In 2022, MSNBC hired Jen Psaki, President Biden’s first White House press secretary, as an anchor.
But in Ms. McDaniel’s case, a chorus of Democrats and MSNBC viewers immediately responded offensively on social media, citing her leadership of the Republican Party during Mr. Trump’s presidency and her handling of his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
MSNBC hosts, some of whom had gone so far as to avoid airing any Trump speeches live on their shows, were concerned about Ms. McDaniel’s appearance on their programs, said three people with knowledge of their concerns. Ms Jones made a series of calls to assure presenters that they did not need to book Ms McDaniel’s appearance.
Ms. McDaniel then appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. The moderator, Kristen Welker, had booked the interview weeks in advance but had no idea NBC was negotiating a paid position for Ms. McDaniel until shortly before the network’s announcement. Ms. Welker pressed Ms. McDaniel on whether she thought Mr. Biden won the election legally.
“He won fair and square,” Ms. McDaniel responded, although she added: “I think it’s fair to say that there were problems in 2020.”
Later during the panel, Mr. Todd told Ms. Welker: “Our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation.” He added that NBC News journalists felt “uncomfortable” working with Ms. McDaniel given the way the Republican National Committee treated them under her leadership.
Mr. Todd’s comments opened the floodgates. On Sunday evening, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee spoke out, accusing NBC of “giving one of the important thing architects of this shameful period in our country a platform to whitewash her role.”
Ms. McDaniel, who declined to comment on the NBC fracas, has long walked a fine line when it comes to Trump’s election conspiracy theories.
Days after the 2020 election, Ms. McDaniel repeated accusations about ballots and voting machines in her home state of Michigan that state officials disputed and later debunked. According to a recording published by The Detroit News, she participated in a phone call with Trump during which he pressured Wayne County canvassing officials not to certify the election results.
But Ms. McDaniel also kept the Republican National Committee away from Mr. Trump’s increasingly brazen lawsuits to overturn the election. She did not support his most outlandish theories – such as foreign powers hacking into voting machines – although she reassured him in other ways by talking about “irregularities” in voting and the creation of an “election integrity” operation within the national committee.
Some of Trump’s allies criticized her for not taking decisive action to question the electoral processes. A person close to the former president, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it appeared Ms. McDaniel “did all the precise things” and never actually believed the 2020 election was stolen.
On Monday’s “Morning Joe,” Ms. Brzezinski told viewers: “To be clear, we imagine NBC News should seek votes from conservative Republicans to make sure balance in election coverage.” But she said Ms. McDaniel’s actions surrounding the 2020 election disqualified her from that position.
“It goes without saying,” Ms. Brzezinski added, “that she will not be a guest on Morning Joe as a paid contributor.”
Aleksandra Berzon, Jan Koblin AND Jonathan Swan reporting contributed.
