NBC firing former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel after 'on-air revolt' from anchors: report

26 March 2024

Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDaniel is reportedly done at NBC News just days after she was hired, according to a breaking report.

Puck News correspondent Dylan Byers was first out with the news, tweeting that he had obtained insider information from NBC News confirming that the network was planning to announce McDaniel's firing after an internal meeting. McDaniel is reportedly speaking with her own legal counsel, suggesting the former RNC chief may attempt to sue NBC for wrongful termination.

Byers attributed the impending firing of McDaniel to "on-air revolt from NBC/MSNBC talent," after a weekend of contentious segments from both NBC and MSNBC commentators engaging in rare on-camera critique of their employer's decision to hire her. MSNBC primetime host Rachel Maddow in particular went viral for her commentary about NBC's decision to hire the former GOP chair, based on her well-documented role in helping former President Donald Trump attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

In her opening segment on Monday night, Maddow explained how McDaniel is specifically mentioned in Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's indictment of former President Donald Trump in his DC election interference case. She also noted that she supported an RNC resolution that criticized the prosecution of January 6 criminal defendants, describing their actions against the US Capitol as "legitimate political discourse."

"The fact that Ms. McDaniel is on the payroll at NBC News, to me that is inexplicable. You wouldn't hire, like, a 'wise guy,' you wouldn't hire a 'made man,' like a mobster to work at a DA's office, right? You wouldn't hire a pickpocket to work as a TSA screener," Maddow said. "And so I find the decision to put her on the payroll inexplicable and I hope they will reverse that decision."

At the time McDaniel's hiring was announced, NBC vice president of politics Carrie Budoff Brown said in a company memo that "it couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team." But other voices on the network, like former Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, vehemently disagreed.

"There’s a reason why there are 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," Todd said on Sunday.

It isn't impossible that McDaniel herself could be the subject of an investigation in the future. She was present on the call with Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when she promised legal representation to several Wayne County, Michigan election officials in exchange for their refusal to certify the results of the 2020 election.

"The reality is there are several criminal inquiries happening at the state and federal level into the post-election attempts to both pressure local elected officials, state lawmakers to interfere with the process, all the way up to the tragedy on our capitol, at the US Capitol on January 6th," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in December. "Will the existing criminal investigation capture any additional illegality that are revealed through this reporting? That's possible."

McDaniel would have been paid $300,000 as a part-time on-air political contributor on NBC News. Her hire came after the network fired MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan — who was one of the network's most critical voices of the Netanyahu regime's response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack. NBC also fired more than a dozen union-affiliated reporters prior to announcing McDaniel's hire.

“Ronna encouraged a lie that many of our own journalists have spent countless hours debunking,” the NBC News Guild tweeted. “Our journalism is tarnished by @NBCNews execs elevating a liar over the workers who have spent years delivering the kind of reporting that our newsrooms are typically known for.”

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