Former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has been hired as an on-air contributor at NBC News — and Chuck Todd had some harsh words for his bosses about it while live on Meet the Press.
McDaniel appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday for a highly contentious interview with Kristen Welker.
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.”
“When NBC made the decision to give her NBC News’ credibility, you got to ask yourself, what does she bring NBC News?” Todd asked. “And when we make deals like this, and I’ve been at this company a long time, you’re doing it for access. Access to audience. Sometimes it’s access to an individual. And we can have a journalistic ethics debate about that. And I’m willing to have that debate. And if you told me we were hiring her as a technical adviser to the Republican convention, I think that would be certainly defensible. If you told me we’re we’re talking to her, but let’s see how she does in some interviews and maybe vet her with actual journalists inside the network to see if it’s a two-way, what she can bring the network.”
Todd continued, “So I do think, unfortunately, this interview was always going to be looked through the prism of who is she speaking for? 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 pulled out from under you. You find out she’s being paid to show up.”
“It’s unfortunate for this program,” Todd said. “I am glad you did the best you could.”
“I appreciate that,” Welker replied.
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
The post WATCH: Chuck Todd Absolutely Blasts His Own Network for Hiring Ronna McDaniel — Live On Meet the Press appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
