Former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has come out against former President Trump’s promise to free the January 6 prisoners.
McDaniel voiced her opposition during a Sunday interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” — the network where she is now a paid contributor.
“I want to be very clear. The violence that happened on January 6 is unacceptable. It doesn’t represent our country. It certainly does not represent my party,” McDaniel told interviewer and co-worker Kristen Welker.
“If you attacked our Capitol and you have been abused and you’ve been convicted, then that should stay,” McDaniel continued.
McDaniel said she only spoke out now because she didn’t want to disagree with Trump while leading the RNC.
“When you’re the RNC chair, you kind of take one for the whole team,” McDaniel said. “Right now, I get to be a little bit more myself. This is what I believe.”
“I don’t think violence should be in our political discourse, Republican or Democrat. And I disagree with him on that,” she continued. “I agree with him on a whole host of other things. Let’s close the border. Let’s make sure we have good incomes for people. Let’s make sure we do a lot of great things. But on that point, I don’t think we should be freeing people who violently attacked Capitol Hill police officers and attacked the Capitol.”
Over 1,350 people have been arrested for being at the Capitol that day.
Following McDaniel’s interview, Chuck Todd had some harsh words for his bosses about hiring McDaniel.
“She is now a paid contributor by NBC news,” Todd said. “I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract. She wants us to believe that she was speaking for the RNC when the RNC was paying for it. So she has credibility issues that she still has to deal with. Is she speaking for herself or is she speaking on behalf of who’s paying her? Once at the RNC, she did say that. Hey, I’m speaking for the party. I get that that’s part of the job. So, what about here?”
Todd told Welker, “I think your interview, did a good job of exposing, I think, many of the contradictions.”
“I think our bosses owe you an apology.” Chuck Todd absolutely rips NBC for hiring Ronna McDaniel, while on NBC. (Video: NBC) pic.twitter.com/ojvz7nqqEE
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) March 24, 2024
The blistering rebuke of her hiring did not stop there. Todd went on to say that many of his colleagues are upset that she has been hired.
“Look, there’s a reason why there’s a lot of journalists at NBC News are uncomfortable with this,” Todd said. “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.”
“When NBC made the decision to give her NBC News’ credibility, you got to ask yourself, what does she bring NBC News?” Todd asked. “And when we make deals like this, and I’ve been at this company a long time, you’re doing it for access. Access to audience. Sometimes it’s access to an individual. And we can have a journalistic ethics debate about that. And I’m willing to have that debate. And if you told me we were hiring her as a technical adviser to the Republican convention, I think that would be certainly defensible. If you told me we’re we’re talking to her, but let’s see how she does in some interviews and maybe vet her with actual journalists inside the network to see if it’s a two-way, what she can bring the network.”
Todd continued, “So I do think, unfortunately, this interview was always going to be looked through the prism of who is she speaking for? I think you did everything you could do. You got put into an impossible situation booking this interview, and then all of a sudden, the rug pulled out from under you. You find out she’s being paid to show up.”