NBC has this all backwards.
They were right to hire Ronna McDaniel
They were wrong to cave to the complaints of their liberal on-air anchors.
Now they are wrong to fire her.
NBC's own story. |
That makes her a perfect on-air contributor. Liberal commentators at NBC were furious. They should have been thrilled. She wasn't a threat to NBC's credibility. She was a threat to Trump's.
Ronna McDaniel is no hero now that she is starting to come clean on Trump's fake-elector plot and the Big Lie. She is very late to the game. Most of her damage was done. She represented the official public face of Republicans, and she normalized Trump. She did not leave the RNC voluntarily. She was fired. She was not loyal enough. She made her way to NBC because she needed a new perch.
The usual suspects of liberal media people rose up in righteous indignation at her hiring. You hired a liar, they said, and we won't stand for that. Monday night Rachel Maddow said:You wouldn’t hire a wise guy -- a made man, like a mobster, to work in a DA’s office. You wouldn’t hire a pickpocket to work as a TCA screener. And so, I find the decision to put her on the payroll inexplicable, and I hope they will reverse their decision.
Those news hosts have it backwards. NBC should have her on air often.
Here is a link to the transcript of the interview between McDaniel and Meet the Press host Kristen Welker. Welker was ready for this interview. It established that the RNC was in on Trump's plot to pressure Michigan to discard the election Biden won. Welker got McDaniel to admit she had been lying about it, and that Biden won, "fairly and squarely." It shows McDaniel scrambling to preserve some sense of legitimate "face."
NBC should make McDaniel a centerpiece of Republicans trying to justify Trump. She reportedly was set to earn $300,000/year. NBC should have made her earn it. Ask her tough, embarrassing questions. When Joy Reid is through with her, pass her along to Chris Hayes. When he is done, pass her to Rachel Maddow. From her to Lawrence O'Donnell. Then to Stephanie Ruhle. Repeat as needed.
McDaniel calls herself a "Michigan mom" and a Christian. The E. Jean Carroll defamation case and the Stormy Daniels case are current news. Ask McDaniel what Christian mothers should say to their daughters about men like Trump grabbing and penetrating women with their fingers. Is it OK for Trump to do that? Ask McDaniel how she explains the E. Jean Carroll case to her children. How does she explain why she still supports him for president?
How should good Republican mothers explain Stormy Daniels to their daughters?
Ask McDaniel what she thinks about the audiotape of Trump bragging to Mar-a-Lago guests about having the classified documents he was waving around at the table. Do Republicans think it is OK to talk about government secrets like this? Trump says it was wrong for the FBI to have used a search warrant to retrieve them. As a good Republican, do you agree with Trump?
Mike Pence said Trump demanded that he violate the Constitution. Is violating the Constitution OK? If it is wrong to violate the Constitution, why does she trust Trump not to do it again?
Alabama says fertilized eggs are human souls. As a Christian mother and Republican, what exactly do you say to couples who want to have babies and need to use IVF?
A prudent Republican politician knows better than to put him or her self in a position to be humiliated on national news. But Ronna McDaniel signed up for that, and for only $300,000/year. It is a bargain for NBC. It would create popular segments of news shows. It would expose the way that Trump and extremists within the GOP have distorted their party.
For seven years at the RNC McDaniel helped normalize Trump's grift and lawlessness. She clearly wants to look normal and reasonable, but Trump is not normal and reasonable. She cannot scramble fast enough to avoid the simple reality that Trump and MAGA behavior are indefensible. She exposes that. The longer she sticks it out before she resigns, the better for NBC and the country.
Hire her back.
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