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Ronna McDaniel: "You Should Trust Me"; Chuck Todd Calls Out NBC News

Ronna McDaniel attempted a bit of political retconning during Sunday's Meet the Press, while Chuck Todd called out NBC News for the hiring.

In twenty-four hours, new NBC News on-air talking ahead ex-Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel went from having a voice on NBC, MSNBC, and NBC News Now to it now just being NBC & NBC News Now. Clearly, some conversations were had between Friday and Saturday, with MSNBC president Rashida Jones notifying the network's staff that McDaniel won't be haunting their halls anytime soon. But the person who's been known to blame the media for everything that ex-reality show host & multi-impeached ex-POTUS Donald Trump did during his one term – including calling the mainstream press "corrupt" & peddling "fake news," peddling 2020 election conspiracy theories, and accusing MSNBC of "spreading lies" and its evening lineup of being "primetime propagandists" – still has a home on NBC – and that meant a rollout this morning on Meet the Press with moderator Kristen Welker.

Was it what we expected? Absolutely. McDaniel attempted to whitewash her past track record of words and deeds, asking viewers to believe who she is now and ignore what she's done over the past six years. Now? McDaniel is speaking out against Trump, who promised to pardon the treasonous domestic terrorists involved with the January 6th attack on our democracy because they're sore losers – just not when he first said it. Now? McDaniel claims she believes that President Joseph Biden was elected "fair and square" – not quite the tune she's been whistling over the past few years.

When asked by Welker if she owes the nation an apology for enabling & perpetuating Trump's election lies, McDaniel offered, "I think the fact that we looked at things is what Democrats have done, Republicans have done. We're allowed to look after elections and say, 'I want to make sure this was done in a transparent and fair way." And I certainly do not agree with violence or any attacks on our Capitol. And I'm going to be very clear. That is something I condemn wholeheartedly." So McDaniel sees January 6th as bad – but spreading unfounded claims that could fuel such a thing? Well, that part of the response was a bit "vague."

Considering her track record with Trump, it only made sense that Welker would bring up McDaniel's credibility – or lack thereof. "I think you should trust me. I mean, I can't speak to people who don't trust different voices. I think you should be able to hear from different voices. And I haven't been able to talk to you about the concerns I had going into that election, and I wish there was more of a dialogue from that," McDaniel offered, apparently believing that "folks who make-up stuff" also deserve to have a seat at the big kids' table. "And I really feel like if our country is going to survive, we need to be able to have difficult conversations like this in a respectful way. We need more of that in our country. But we also can't go into our echo chambers and say, 'I'm only going to listen to what Democrats have to say,' and, 'I'm only going to listen to what Republicans have to say.' Listen to it and make your own opinion."

One person who didn't seem to be impressed was Chuck Todd. The former Meet the Press moderator and NBC News' chief political analyst joined Welker on the post-interview panel, complimenting the host on doing "a good job of exposing, I think, many of the contradictions" in what Ronna McDaniel had to say – adding that "I think our bosses [NBC News] owe you an apology for putting you in this situation." From there, Todd didn't mince words when it came to expressing his issues with the deal, his understanding of why members of NBC News are taking issue with the hiring, and his concerns that McDaniel will end up benefitting from the deal more than NBC News -and the viewers – will.

"She is now a paid contributor by NBC News. 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 her. 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?" Todd said. Later, Todd dug deeper into the feelings among the network's news division. "Look, there's a reason why there's 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. That's where you begin here. And so, when NBC made the decision to give her NBC News' credibility, you gotta ask yourself, what does she bring NBC News? 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."

Todd went on to address how Ronna McDaniel could've been brought aboard NBC News in a different capacity that would've been easier to defend and would've given the news division credibility distance from McDaniel. "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 talking to her but let's 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 to the network. Unfortunately, this interview is always going to be looked through the prism of, who is she speaking for?" In the end, Todd sees the move to hire McDaniel as one that will leave the network the lesser for it: "I don't think it's going to bring the network what they think it wants to bring to the network. I understand the motivation, but this execution, I think, was poor."

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