\n<\/p>\n
After an unprecedented barrage of on-air opposition from network stars, NBC News has cut ties with Ronna McDaniel<\/strong>, the former Republican National Committee chair, whom they hired last week as a contributor.<\/p>\n \u201cNo organization, particularly a newsroom, can succeed unless it is cohesive and aligned. Over the last few days, it has become clear that this appointment undermines that goal,\u201d NBCU News Group Chairman Cesar Conde<\/strong> said in a memo to the entire news group on Tuesday evening. The memo came hours after Puck\u2019s Dylan Byers<\/strong> reported<\/a> that NBC planned to drop McDaniel, executives were deliberating over details, and McDaniel was seeking legal representation. \u201cI want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down. While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it,\u201d said Conde, who had publicly remained silent amid the torrent of public criticism from his own employees.<\/p>\n He added that the initial decision to hire McDaniel was made out of \u201cour deep commitment to presenting our audiences with a widely diverse set of viewpoints and experiences, particularly during these consequential times,\u201d and continued commitment to that principle. \u201cWe will redouble our efforts to seek voices that represent different parts of the political spectrum,\u201d said Conde.<\/p>\n Though there has long been a revolving door between the worlds of politics and TV punditry, leading voices on NBC and MSNBC were particularly rankled by McDaniel\u2019s past amplification of Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s lies about the 2020 election being \u201crigged\u201d\u2014 even playing a role<\/a> in his efforts to pressure Michigan election officials not to certify the results.<\/p>\n \u201cNBC News is, either wittingly or unwittingly, teaching election deniers that what they can do stretches well beyond appearing on our air and interviews to peddle lies about the sanctity and integrity of our elections,\u201d MSNBC\u2019s Nicolle Wallace<\/strong> said Monday on her afternoon show. \u201cThere is an easy way to avoid the controversy NBC News has stumbled into: Don\u2019t hire anyone close to the crimes. That\u2019s what happened to the [Richard] Nixon gang,\u201d Lawrence O\u2019Donnell<\/strong> said on his evening program. \u201cOur democracy is in danger because of the lies that people like Ronna McDaniel have pushed on this country,\u201d said Jen Psaki.<\/strong><\/p>\n That McDaniel was put on the payroll at NBC News is \u201cinexplicable,\u201d Rachel Maddow<\/strong> said Monday night, urging her bosses to \u201creverse their decision\u201d in an on-air plea. \u201cTake a minute. Acknowledge that maybe it wasn\u2019t the right call,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is a sign of strength, not weakness, to acknowledge when you are wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n It was NBC\u2019s Chuck Todd<\/strong> who unleashed the on-air floodgates<\/a> on Sunday, after Meet the Press<\/em> host Kristen Welker<\/strong> interviewed McDaniel for a previously scheduled interview. \u201cI think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,\u201d Todd, who previously hosted the Sunday show for nearly a decade, told Welker in a panel after McDaniel made her debut. \u201cBecause I don\u2019t know what to believe. She is now a paid contributor by NBC News, so I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn\u2019t want to mess up her contract,\u201d said Todd.<\/p>\n In the interview with Welker, McDaniel continued to make unfounded claims about \u201cissues\u201d with the 2020 election, though she acknowledged that Joe Biden<\/strong> \u201cwon\u201d and is the \u201clegitimate president.\u201d Then, on Monday morning, Morning Joe<\/em> hosts Joe Scarborough<\/strong> and Mika Brzezinski<\/strong> piled on. \u201cWe weren\u2019t asked our opinion of the hiring,\u201d Scarborough said<\/a>, \u201cbut if we were, we would have strongly objected to it.\u201d Brzezinski noted that \u201cNBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage, but it should be conservative Republicans\u2014not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier, and we hope NBC will reconsider its decision.\u201d It \u201cgoes without saying,\u201d she added, that McDaniel would not be a guest on Morning Joe.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n