(LibertySons.org) – In February, Ronna McDaniel stepped down as chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC). A month later NBC News said it had hired her, in the face of opposition from many of its own staff. Within days, the network changed its mind and let McDaniel go.
McDaniel’s Controversial Career
Although she’s a member of a prominent Republican family –- she’s former presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s niece –- Ronna McDaniel didn’t attract much attention until she became chair of the Michigan Republican Party in 2015. Two years later, she moved up to chair of the RNC and suddenly became a player in national politics. It’s safe to say her time at the RNC hasn’t all been smooth sailing.
McDaniel started off well. In 2018, she launched an active fundraising operation that put the GOP in a very strong financial position for that year’s midterm elections. In fact, she helped raise over $200 million—over twice as much as the Democrats managed. She also promised to find out why traditionally pro-Republican voting groups were abandoning the party.
In 2021, however, McDaniel started to do things that upset some of her fellow Republicans. That year, she issued a statement supporting Pride Month. That didn’t go down well with the more conservative wing of the party, and she didn’t release similar statements again.
However, her biggest problems came from the 2020 presidential election. A Trump loyalist, she backed the former president’s claims of vote-rigging and electoral fraud. On January 27 she was re-elected for a fourth term as RNC chair, but said she wouldn’t run for a fifth term. However, after Trump won the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, McDaniel suddenly announced that she would step down to let him pick his own chair to lead the RNC through the election campaign.
NBC Can’t Make Its Mind Up
As RNC chair, McDaniel wasn’t exactly a darling of the liberal media, so there was some surprise when, on March 22, NBC News suddenly announced it had hired her as a contributor. Calling her “one of the most high-profile hires of the 2024 election cycle,” the network said she would appear on Meet The Press and other shows. Some of NBC’s existing presenters had different ideas, though—especially liberal media personalities Rachel Maddow and Chuck Todd.
On March 26, NBC abruptly backtracked, under pressure from liberal staff outraged at McDaniel’s hiring. In an internal memo, chairman Cesar Conde told network staff that after a “difficult” few days and listening to “legitimate concerns,” “Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor.” It looks like McDaniel’s first post-politics career is over before it really began.
~Here’s to Our Liberty!
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