Former Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd targeted his bosses on Sunday after an interview with the network’s newest contributor, former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, aired.
Todd, speaking to the show’s current moderator, Kristen Welker, blasted NBC for hiring McDaniel and told Welker, “I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation.”
The network has faced pushback after the announcement of McDaniel’s arrival as a political analyst, with many people confused, pointing out the RNC’s behavior toward news organizations such as NBC under McDaniel’s stewardship.
Todd, NBC’s chief political analyst and one of the network’s most prominent journalists, did not dissent from those opinions. “I don’t know what to believe,” he said, saying she “has credibility issues that she still has to deal with.”
“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, he said. “That’s where you begin here.”
Welker herself appeared less than thrilled with the network’s decision, stating clearly before her interview with McDaniel that the interview was scheduled “weeks before” it was announced she had become a paid contributor. “This will be a news interview,” Welker said. “And I was not involved in her hiring.”
Todd applauded his colleague for doing “everything you could do,” adding, “You got put into an impossible situation, booking this interview, and then all of a sudden the rug [is] pulled out from under you, you find out she’s being paid to show up. That is unfortunate for this program.”
While she acknowledged on Sunday that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election “fair and square,” McDaniel promoted unfounded claims of election interference in its immediate aftermath and has previously called the media corrupt.
McDaniel ran the RNC from 2017 until last month when it was clear she had lost the support to continue from likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The former president backed Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, to take over.
While there were positives to take away from McDaniel’s time in charge, such as her noting of having “more women in Congress ever than in the history of our party,” many Republicans were frustrated over the committee’s lack of fundraising and losses in elections, such as in 2020 and 2023.
During her interview with Welker on Sunday, McDaniel announced her opposition to Trump’s plan to free imprisoned Jan. 6 rioters. But Welker pressed her, asking why she didn’t speak up earlier about the former president’s rhetoric surrounding the attack on the Capitol.
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“When you’re the RNC chair, you kind of take one for the whole team, right? Now I get to be a little bit more myself, Right?” she said. “This is what I believe — I don’t think violence should be in our political discourse, Republican or Democrat.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to NBC News for comment.
