'Pretty bad': Yale historian slams NBC for hiring ex-RNC chair who 'tried to disassemble our democracy'

26 March 2024

NBC News has drawn widespread criticism since announcing its decision to hire former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel as a contributing pundit. And some of the criticism has come from prominent figures at MSNBC, including Rachel Maddow and "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski — who, on Monday, March 26, made it abundantly clear that they will not be featuring McDaniel on their show.

The hire has also been lambasted by everyone from Media Matters to Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC host who is now editor-in-chief of Zeteo News. But media figures aren't the only ones who are speaking out.

Timothy Snyder, an historian at Yale University in Connecticut, considers NBC News' decision to feature McDaniel egregious in light of her efforts to help Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

Snyder has no problem with NBC News hiring conservatives. In fact, some of MSNBC's hosts are conservative, including Scarborough, Nicolle Wallace (who served as White House communications director under former President George W. Bush) and former RNC Chaiman Michael Steele.

During an appearance on MSNBC, Snyder argued, "What NBC has done, of its own volition, is bring into a very important conversation about democracy — one which is going to take place for the next seven months or so — someone who.… tried to disassemble our democracy, who personally took part in an attempt to undo the American system."

The Yale historian continued, "And so.… what NBC is doing is saying, 'Well, (it) could be that in '24, our entire system will break down. Could be we'll have an authoritarian leader. Oh, but look, we've made this adjustment in advance because we've brought into the middle of NBC somebody who has already taken part in an attempt to take our system down.' So yeah, I think this is pretty bad."

Interviewed by The Guardian — which he has written for — Snyder emphasized that a major media organization like NBC News shouldn't be hiring someone with a record of promoting outright lies.

Snyder told The Guardian: "If we're going to be putting people on the news who have participated in an attempt to overthrow the system, then we have to ask, at the very beginning: 'Why did you do that? Why is that legitimate?' And we have to ask ourselves, 'Why is it that we are taking this step to bring people into the middle of our discussion?'"

The historian added, "So, my two red lines are: You should be somebody who's at least trying for the facts, and you shouldn't be somebody who has taken part in an attempt to undo the system — which is what we're talking about here. We shouldn't mince words about it."

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