'Morning Joe' co-hosts hope NBC will 'reconsider' hiring of Ronna McDaniel
MSNBC co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski railed against NBC Newsâ decision to hire Ronna McDaniel as a political analyst Monday, saying they hope the network âreconsiders its decision.â
âTo 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,â Brzezinski said during Monday’s âMorning Joe.â âWe hope NBC will reconsider its decision. It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on âMorning Joeâ in her capacity as a paid contributor.â
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 âMorning Joeâ come after McDanielâs interview on Sundayâs âMeet the Press,â where several NBC journalists expressed their concern with the hire. Former âMeet the Pressâ host Chuck Todd criticized the leadership of his own company on Sunday for the move.
âI 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,â Scarborough said on âMorning Joe.â âWe learned about the hiring when we read about it in the press on Friday.â
âWe 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,â Scarborough continued.
McDaniel first clearly acknowledged Bidenâs victory almost a year after the election.