Why Ronna McDaniel’s hiring and “firing” by NBC matters.

March 25, 2024

Opening thoughts

In the span of 72 hours, NBC announced the hiring and partial “firing” of former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel. McDaniel’s hiring sparked a firestorm of protest within NBC internally and by viewers of MSNBC and NBC that caused the network’s executive to announce that she would not appear “on air” on the MSNBC cable network. (As of Sunday evening, it appears she will continue to appear on NBC as a political contributor.)

NBC’s decision to hire McDaniel was deeply troubling on many levels. The backlash by viewers and journalists at MSNBC and NBC was instructive and encouraging. But this story also serves as a morality tale for the challenges we will face in the next seven months as the media and pundits normalize and dismiss the attempted coup and insurrection.

Indeed, the hiring and partial retraction of McDaniel’s employment occurred amidst a renewed round of handwringing by pundits and consultants who are freaking out about the possibility of Biden losing in November. That fear is rooted in a stubborn refusal to acknowledge the stakes of the 2024 election and an obsessive compulsion with “favorability ratings.”

It’s a good thing none of those pundits or consultants were in charge of the Continental Army during the American Revolution when George Washington’s battlefield record was six victories, seven losses, and four draws. The modern-day pundits would have surrendered after the first loss, and America would be a colony of the United Kingdom today.

We will be forced to endure a constant barrage of defeatism from the political class in the months to come. Why? They are reserving their pre-emptive “I told you so” rights so that if things turn out badly, they can claim to be geniuses. If Biden wins, no one will remember or hold them accountable for their defeatism.  For the pundits, it’s a “Heads I win, tails you lose” proposition.

So, let’s burst the “I am a genius” balloons of the pundits now. The 2024 presidential election will be a close race. It takes no great skill or insight to wring your hands and say you have a bad feeling about the election. At this point, pundits and prognosticators are dead weight, holding back those of us who refuse to retreat at the first hint of trouble.

Most of the analysis by the self-proclaimed experts is incredibly superficial—about a quarter inch deep. For example, a reader sent me an “economic outlook” from the large Wall Street bank managing her retirement account. The Wall Street bank said that the markets are beginning to anticipate a Trump victory because Biden’s unfavorability ratings remain high.

The reader’s retirement advisers apparently do not understand that Americans actually vote for president and that elections are not determined by “favorability ratings.” Voters are not securities traded in an efficient market. They are people motivated by a multitude of factors.

The investment advisers do not appear to believe that women (or men) care about having their reproductive liberty controlled by religious zealots, allowing weapons of war to be carried in public without a permit, rolling back climate protections after the hottest year on record, disenfranchising Black voters, denying equal dignity to LGBTQ people, or allowing Americans to choose their leaders.

Nor do the investment advisers appear to be concerned that one of the candidates for president has 91 felony indictments, will sit through one criminal trial before the election, has promised to be a dictator, is threatening to blow up the strongest military alliance in the world, and appears (again) to be supported by Russia in his bid for the presidency.

We are in uncharted waters. Old maps do not apply. But pundits, pollsters, and Wall Street gurus insist on looking back to templates and spreadsheets that applied in “normal” times.

We are living through an exceptional moment in which we can make our own rules. Recognizing that fact and having the audacity to break “the old rules” to create a new template for success is critical to controlling the outcome of the 2024 election. Don’t allow yourself to be weighed down by consultants re-litigating the 1992, 2000, 2008, or 2016 elections.

I could go on, but you get the point. We control our destiny—but only if we ignore people who tell us we are sheep, shares of stock, or widgets. We are not. We are Americans wielding the awesome power granted us by the Constitution.

But how is Ronna McDaniel’s hiring and firing related to the shortsighted defeatism of the consulting class? Read on!

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Rona McDaniel’s hiring illustrates the normalization of the insurrection and coup among the media and political class.

There is a direct line between normalizing the coup and panicking about Biden’s prospects in 2024. Hear me out.

Ronna McDaniel was aware of the fake elector's plot in real-time and did nothing to stop the attempted coup. Worse, she participated in a call to pressure local elections officials in Michigan to refuse to certify election results based on non-existent fraud. When the media reported on her participation in the election interference plot, she accused MSNBC of ‘spreading lies’ and employing ‘prime time propagandists.’” She repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was “rigged.”

Regardless of whether Ronna McDaniel has criminal liability for the attempted coup, she cheered loudly for its success and smeared journalists who spoke the truth about the first-ever effort to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. That alone should ban her for life from any role at a legitimate news platform.

It is reprehensible that Comcast / NBC would hire Ronna McDaniel as a political consultant after her election denialism and active involvement in at least one overt act to overturn the Constitution. And yet, dozens of executives at NBC apparently view the attempted coup as part of the game of hardball election politics. They are ready to forgive and forget despite the lack of accountability for Trump and his advisers—including members of the RNC.

By reducing the attempted coup and insurrection to mere “partisan politics,” NBC is misleading the American people about the stakes in 2024 by denying the reality of what happened in 2020. And if you ignore the stakes, if you ignore the unprecedented nature of the 2024 election, then perhaps it isn’t unreasonable to say, “Well, in 1992, George H.W. Bush’s favorability ratings were X and he lost.” But Bill Clinton in 1992 isn’t Donald Trump in 2024. The world has forever changed because of the insurrection and the incipient fascism that is roiling beneath the surface.

We cannot allow NBC to continue in its misguided view of what is at stake in 2024. Read on!

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The backlash against NBC was partially successful.

Hundreds of readers of this newsletter—and tens of thousands of Americans (an estimate) let NBC know that they strenuously objected to the presence of Ronna McDaniel on the network. Journalists at NBC and MSNBC also spoke out. The combined pressure worked—at least at MSNBC. See WaPo, Former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel faces sharp criticism after NBC hiring. (This article is accessible to all.)

According to WaPo, the president of MSNBC, Rashida Jones, sent an internal memo assuring MSNBC staff that Ronna McDaniel would not be forced on the hosts at MSNBC as an on-air contributor or commentator. Good! The pressure campaign worked.

But it is not enough.

McDaniel appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday and attempted to dismiss her previous election denialism by saying that as chair of the RNC she “had to take one for the team.” One reasonable interpretation of that statement could be, “I lied because I was paid to lie.”

Chuck Todd was part of an NBC panel that dissected McDaniel’s interview on Meet the Press by Kristen Welker. Chuck Todd said,

Our bosses owe you [Welker] an apology for putting you in this situation because I don’t know what to believe. . . . I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract.

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.

Good for Chuck Todd! (Not usually on my list of “go to” sources.) Let’s hope he speaks for a substantial portion of the NBC News staff—and that NBC management is listening.

The deluge of comments from listeners had an immediate effect on the editorial and staffing decisions at MSNBC! There is a lesson in that for all of us! We can fight the normalization of the coup and insurrection. Indeed, we must! Otherwise, voters will be misinformed about the stakes of the 2024 election.

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There is more to be done.

As of Sunday evening, Ronna McDaniel appears to remain at NBC as a “contributor.” Thanks to a reader (Susan O. S.) for identifying the executives at NBC who oversee the news function at the NBC network (not to be confused with the cable-based MSNBC). The email addresses are:

• President, NBC: Rebecca.Blumenstein@nbcuni.com

• SVP of Politics: carrie.budoff@nbcuni.com

Keeping Ronna McDaniel “off the air” at a legitimate media outlet is imperative. She lied before she joined NBC and smeared NBC’s journalists for telling the truth. She participated in at least one act designed to overturn the election. She should not be trusted with any news platform that reaches persuadable voters—because we have no reason to believe that she will tell the truth going forward.

The stakes are simply too high, and the time is too short for NBC to “see what happens” if NBC “gives her chance.” McDaniel has proven who she is; we should believe her.

Let NBC know how you feel about its cynical willingness to play politics with our democracy.

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A big week for legal developments.

There is a lot going on in Trump's civil and criminal trials this week. Read Joyce Vance’s excellent preview in her Substack blog, Civil Discourse, The Week Ahead.

Joyce Vance touches on the upcoming Supreme Court argument on mifepristone. For a deep dive on the arguments relating to mifepristone (hearing on Tuesday) and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (hearing on April 24), see the discussion in Chris Geidner’s Substack blog, Law Dork, Anti-abortion groups reach the Supreme Court. Both of these cases will receive a lot of attention in the next month.

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Opportunities for Reader Engagement

I am on the Indivisible Marin newsletter list. I received a newsletter on Sunday evening that deserves to be shared widely. Here it is:

Hello, wonderful IndiMarin Volunteers!

Perry Bacon, Jr., a columnist at the Washington Post, recently wrote a piece which was quite a major tip of the hat to the work that we, the movement formerly referred to as The Resistance, continue to do. Bacon writes, "The election results from 2022 and 2023 (and 2018 and 2020 as well) suggest that the Indivisible approach is electorally useful. When voters perceive Republicans as antiabortion and anti-democracy, they are more likely to back Democratic candidates." 

He closes on a hopeful and inspiring note, "America needs a party that is unabashedly for multiculturalism and economic populism. And if 2024 goes well for Democrats, we might finally have one." Here is a link to the "gift" article. Let's all take a moment to feel deservedly proud, and then, get back to work to win a trifecta in November! Onward!

If you are interested in joining IndiMarin or subscribing to its newsletter, check out this link: Indivisible Marin.

Downtown Nasty Women Social Group helps fight disinformation.

I also received a newsletter from the Downtown Nasty Women Social Group that linked to a wonderful resource created by the group to counter GOP disinformation. The resource is a compilation of short, shareable, persuasive facts described as follows: “Each week we highlight one FACT that you can share with non-believers. It's up to us to change the GOP misinformation narrative!” Check out the Facts to Counter GOP Misinformation (mailchi.mp).

The Downtown Nasty Women Social Group is a dynamic organization doing lots of good work—including sponsoring a Giving Circle for the States Project. Check out Downtown Nasty Women Social Group.

Partners4Democracy event will address Targeting the States: Seven Keys to Victory on Monday, April 1.

Partners4Democracy is hosting the second of three Special Events on “The Target States:  Seven Keys to Victory” on Monday, April 1 at 7:00 PM (EST).  These live events will explore the issues, politics and strategies expected to drive voter turnout in each of seven target states and how to get involved to ensure Democrats cross the finish line first.  This Second event will focus on the races in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, and will feature Senator Vincent Hughes, a 27 year veteran of the Pennsylvania legislature and Anderson Clayton, the young, dynamic leader of the North Carolina Democratic Party.

P4D is a volunteer group which raises money for grass roots groups in target states who work year-round to organize and get out the vote among key constituencies.  It also supports candidates in state and national races who have a credible chance of winning and who need additional financial resources.  P4D identifies volunteer opportunities for its network and holds monthly Special Events on topics of interest in the 2024 election.

Attendance is free.  REGISTER HERE for this unique event.

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Concluding Thoughts

We are in uncharted waters. The old maps do not apply. But we are not without a compass to guide us. Democrats have held fast to their principles. That is enough to show us the way to victory—because those principles seek to advance the interests of the American people, the true North. So, let’s set aside our fears and ignore the noise. We have work to do.

Talk to you tomorrow!