Morning Joecohosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski slammed NBC this week after the network hired former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor, RadarOnline.com can report.
Scarborough and Brzezinski spoke out against McDaniel’s recent hiring on Monday morning.
The pair claimed that Morning Joe and other MSNBC and NBC programs were “inundated with calls” over the decision to hire the former chair of the Republican National Committee.
Scarborough emphasized that neither he nor Brzezinski were consulted about the decision, and Brzezinski called on the network to “reconsider its decision.”
“I 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,” Scarborough said regarding McDaniel’s hiring.
“We learned about the hiring when we read about it in the press on Friday,” he continued. “We weren’t asked our opinion of the hiring, but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it for several reasons.”
Scarborough listed McDaniel’s “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” as reasons why the former RNC chair should not be with NBC.
Brzezinski echoed her co-host and husband’s remarks. She acknowledged that NBC should “seek out conservative Republican voices” to “provide balance in their election coverage” but that McDaniel was not that kind of voice.
“To be clear, we believe NBC news should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage,” Brzezinski explained. “But it should be conservative Republicans, not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier.”
“We hope NBC will reconsider its decision.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, McDaniel previously defended ex-President Donald Trump’s dangerous and debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen."
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Although she later acknowledged that Joe Biden was the “legitimate winner” of the 2020 presidential election, she stood by her belief that there were “problems” with the race.
“[Biden] won. He’s the legitimate winner. Fair and square. He won. It’s certified. It’s done,” she admitted. “But I do think it’s fair to say there were problems in 2020.”
Flash forward to earlier this month, and McDaniel stepped down as chair of the RNC. Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife and ex-President Trump’s daughter-in-law, was named RNC co-chair upon McDaniel’s departure.
“I have decided to step aside at our Spring Training on March 8 in Houston to allow our nominee to select a Chair of their choosing," McDaniel said shortly before her official resignation. "The RNC has historically undergone change once we have a nominee and it has always been my intention to honor that tradition."
McDaniel was then hired by NBC as a paid contributor on Friday, March 22.
“It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on Morning Joe in her capacity as a paid contributor,” Brzezinski charged amid the McDaniel-NBC backlash on Monday.