Veteran NBC anchor Chuck Todd on Sunday criticized the network’s leadership over hiring former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel as a contributor days after she resigned. .
McDaniel sat down for his first interview since leaving the RNC on Sunday with Kristen Welker, host of “Meet the Press,” which Todd held for nine years. In a panel discussion immediately following the interview, Todd expressed his dissatisfaction with the transition to broadcasting.
“Let me address the elephant in the room,” he began.
“I think our boss owes you an apology for putting you in this situation, because you don’t know what to believe,” Todd told Welker. “She’s currently a paid contributor for NBC News, so I don’t know if she answered you because I don’t want to mess up her contract.”
Todd said McDaniel has “credibility issues” and outlined tensions among the station’s journalists over the hire.
“There’s a reason why many NBC News journalists are uncomfortable with this, because much of their professional dealings with the RNC over the past six years have been met with gaslighting and character assassination.” he said.
“So when NBC made the decision to give her the credibility of NBC News, we had to ask ourselves, ‘What does she bring to NBC News?'” he added.
Before her interview with McDaniel, Welker made it clear that it was not timed to coincide with her employment. She said the interview had been scheduled for several weeks.
“This will be a news interview, but I was not involved in her hiring,” she said.
Major networks like NBC are used to hiring leading conservative figures after they leave their posts. For example, senior Trump administration staffers such as former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former Director of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney frequently appear on panel shows.
In announcing her hire on Friday, the network emphasized that her political background brings editorial and ideological balance to its reporting.
“There couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Rona’s on our team,” said Carrie Budoff Brown, head of political reporting at NBC. I wrote it in my notes Shared with The New York Times.
McDaniel will be featured in election coverage on NBC and the network’s sister cable channel, MSNBC.
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