MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski pledged they would not book former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel on "Morning Joe."
Network president Rashida Jones reportedly called anchors over the weekend to assure them there was no obligation to bring McDaniel onto their shows, and Scarborough made clear he disagreed with her hiring as a paid contributor due to her involvement in Donald Trump's scheme to overturn the 2020 election.
"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. "We learned about the hiring when we read about it in the press on Friday. We weren't asked our opinion of the hiring, but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it for several reasons, including but not limited to, as lawyers might say, Ms. McDaniels' 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."
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"To be clear," added Brzezinski, "we believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage, 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. It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on 'Morning Joe' in her capacity as a paid contributor."
McDaniel made her inaugural appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," where she was confronted with a supercut video of her own justification of Trump's efforts to subvert the 2020 election results, and Brzezinski reacted by covering her own face with her palm.
"Exhausting," she said.
"We don't need to sort through a lot here," Scarborough said. "Let's just focus in on what I think history will focus on, if you don't mind me stepping into your lane for a minute, because she really summed up the sickness in the Republican Party. When asked by [host] Kristen Welker, why did you go along with the whitewashing of political violence? Why didn't you speak out against those who tried to overturn American democracy, those who beat the hell out of cops, those who rioted at the United States Capitol at the instruction of Donald Trump, the guidance of Donald Trump, the inspiration of Donald Trump? Why not? She said, 'Sometimes you have to take one for the team.'"
"I suppose that's what Lindsey Graham will tell us after all of this is over, Marco Rubio – I can go down a list of once conservative Republicans who are now a member of Donald Trump's cult," Scarborough added. "I do think those words, take one for the team, when you're asked why you didn't stand up and speak out against political violence that was focused on overturning American democracy, I think those are words that, unfortunately, describe the Republican Party over the past seven years."
Watch the video below or at this link.
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