Rachel Maddow Reacts To Ronna McDaniel’s NBC Ouster

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow praised NBC News’ decision to axe Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor after uproar from staff on both channels.

Speaking to MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Tuesday, Maddow acknowledged that “it always feels wrong to talk about things, you know, in the company, as if it’s news.”

She said there was an “essentially unanimous feeling among all the journalists in the building, our senior staff, and all the producers” about the decision to hire the former Republican National Committee chair.

“But then to see the executives and the leadership hear that, respond to it, and be willing to change course based on their respect for us and hearing what we argued — I have deep respect for that,” she said.

Maddow was among an array of MSNBC and NBC stars publicly criticizing McDaniel’s hiring after it was announced over the weekend. In on-air rebukes, journalists pointed to McDaniel’s history of dishonesty and support of Donald Trump’s lies about election fraud.

Maddow delivered a nearly 30-minute-long admonishment on Monday, voicing her objection to “our company putting on the payroll someone who has not just attacked us as journalists but is part of an ongoing project to get rid of our system of government.”

NBC announced it had reversed the decision Tuesday afternoon.

Cesar Conde, the chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, emailed staff to say he had heard their “legitimate concerns” and apologized for letting them down.

“Acknowledging that you might have got something wrong is a real sign of strength,” Maddow said on Tuesday’s segment with Reid.

“It’s not about hiring a Republican, not even hiring somebody who has Trump ties,” she added. “This was a really specific case because of Ms. McDaniel and her involvement in the