MSNBC co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski railed against NBC News’ decision to hire Ronna McDaniel as a political analyst Monday, saying they hope the network “reconsiders its decision.”
“To be clear, we believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage, but it should be conservative Republicans, not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier,” Brzezinski said during Monday’s “Morning Joe.” “We hope NBC will reconsider its decision. It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on “Morning Joe” in her capacity as a paid contributor.”
MSNBC President Rashida Jones told employees on Saturday night that there were no plans to have McDaniel, the former chair of the RNC, appear on MSNBC (a cable arm of the NBC News division), according to the Wall Street Journal, following internal backlash to news of McDaniel’s hiring.
NBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning.
The comments on “Morning Joe” come after McDaniel’s interview on Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” where several NBC journalists expressed their concern with the hire. Former “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd criticized the leadership of his own company on Sunday for the move.
“I know you won’t be surprised to know that we’ve been inundated with calls this weekend, as have most people connected with this network, about NBC’s decision to hire her,” Scarborough said on “Morning Joe.” “We learned about the hiring when we read about it in the press on Friday.”
“We weren’t asked our opinion of the hiring, but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it for several reasons including but not limited to, as lawyers might, Ms. McDaniels’ role in Donald Trump’s fake elector scheme and her pressuring election officials to not certify election results while Donald Trump was on the phone,” Scarborough continued.
McDaniel first clearly acknowledged Biden’s victory almost a year after the election.