More hosts oppose NBC News’ hiring of former RNC leader
NEW YORK — The internal furor over NBC News’ decision to hire former Republican National Committee head Ronna Mcdaniel as a paid contributor spread Monday, with MSNBC’S “Morning Joe” hosts saying on the air that they objected and wouldn’t have her on their show.
“We hope NBC will reconsider its decision,” said Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’S four-hour morning show with her husband, former GOP Rep. Joe Scarborough.
The comments from the hosts, who said they learned about Mcdaniel’s hiring through news reports Friday, followed former “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd’s public criticism a day earlier. Todd said many NBC News journalists were uncomfortable with the hiring because of Mcdaniel’s “gaslighting” and “character assassination” while at the RNC.
There was no immediate comment on Monday from NBC News or Mcdaniel.
The network announced Mcdaniel’s hiring on Friday, two weeks after she stepped down as the RNC leader, saying Mcdaniel would add to NBC News’ coverage with an insider’s perspective.
Scarborough said he objected because of Mcdaniel’s role in former President Donald Trump’s “fake elector scheme” and said she summed up the “sickness” in the Republican Party where sticking with the team is more important than speaking the truth.
NBC has said it will leave it up to individual MSNBC producers and personalities whether Mcdaniel will appear on the network.
The hosts aired an exchange from Mcdaniel’s previously scheduled interview the day before on “Meet the Press” with current moderator Kristen Welker, who wondered why the former RNC chairwoman didn’t speak up earlier after saying Sunday she disagreed with Trump’s contention that people jailed for their part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol should be freed.
“When you’re the RNC chair you kind of take one for the whole team, right?” Mcdaniel said. “Now I get to be a little bit more myself, right? This is what I believe.”
Mcdaniel’s tacit endorsement of Trump’s false claims that the outcome of the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent makes her hiring even more sensitive, given the continuing legal and political ripples of the Jan. 6, 2021, siege at the U.S. Capitol that was an outgrowth of the fraud allegations.
During her “Meet the Press” interview, Mcdaniel acknowledged that Biden won the 2020 election “fair and square.” That was a reversal from a CNN appearance last summer, when she said “I don’t think he won it fair. I don’t.”
Senegal opposition wins: Senegal’s little-known, 44-year-old opposition leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye appeared set Monday to become the African country’s next president, less than two weeks after being released from prison to run in the election.
While official results of Sunday’s vote were not yet available, former Prime Minister Amadou Ba, who was the other front-runner and was backed by incumbent President Macky Sall, conceded defeat based on preliminary results.
Faye, who was backed by popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, has vowed to protect Senegal from corruption. Sonko, who was also released on March 14 after months in prison to celebrations in the capital, was barred from running due to a conviction, and Faye ran in his place.
The election followed months of deadly unrest ignited by Faye and Sonko’s arrest last year. The violence shook Senegal’s reputation as a stable democracy.
Hacking crackdown: Hackers linked to the Chinese government launched a sweeping, state-backed operation that targeted U.S. officials, journalists, corporations, pro-democracy activists and the U.K.’S election watchdog, American and British authorities said Monday in announcing a set of criminal charges and sanctions.
The intent of the campaign, which officials say began in 2010, was to harass critics of the Chinese government, steal trade secrets of U.S. corporations and to spy on high-level political figures. Western officials disclosed the operation, carried out by a hacking group known as APT31, while sounding an election-year alarm about a country long seen as having advanced spy capabilities.
The U.S. Justice Department charged seven hackers, all believed to be living in China. The British government imposed sanctions on two of the defendants in a breach that may have given the Chinese access to data on millions of U.K. voters.
Venezuela campaigning: On Monday, throngs of supporters of President Nicolás Maduro rallied at a giant stage outside the electoral council headquarters where he made official his candidacy for a third term lasting until 2031. Meanwhile, his would-be rivals tried to register their candidate, an 80-year-old unknown, before a looming deadline but found they were unable — in what the opposition called the latest attack on Venezuela’s democracy.
Polls show Venezuelans would trounce the unpopular Maduro by a landslide if given a chance.
But the self-proclaimed socialist leader has so far managed to block his chief opponents from running while alternately negotiating and then reneging on minimal electoral guarantees promised to the U.S. government in exchange for relief from oil sanctions.
In a creative bid to force Maduro’s authoritarian hand, two smaller opposition parties approved for July’s managed election nominated former academic Corina Yoris last week.
Europe security: Italy followed France on Monday in stepping up security following the attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall and the claim of responsibility by an affiliate of the Islamic State group.
The attack renewed attention in Europe on the risk from the extremists, and particularly the Central Asian affiliate, as the continent gears up for big events such as the Paris Olympics.
France on Sunday increased its security alert posture to the highest level. In Italy, security was increased for Holy Week observances leading up to Easter this weekend.
Combs’propertiessearched: Two properties belonging to rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs in Los Angeles and Miami were searched Monday by federal Homeland Security Investigations agents and other law enforcement as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation by federal authorities in New York, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.
It’s not clear whether Combs was the target of the investigation. The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the inquiry and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment. Messages to Combs’ lawyers and other representatives were not returned.