‘I Was Not Involved In Her Hiring’: NBC’s Welker Runs Away from Election Denying Ex-RNC Chair
"Meet The Press" host begins Sunday with disclaimer about Ronna McDaniel
Kristen Welker couldn’t seem to run far enough — or fast enough — away from her new NBC News colleague, Ronna McDaniel.
Welker began Sunday’s Meet The Press with a very explicit — and pointed — disclaimer ahead of the interview which would mark McDaniel’s first appearance on NBC since the network announced that the recently departed chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) would be joining NBC News as a paid political analyst.
The hiring of McDaniel within a prominent news organization has become something of a firestorm, given that at the helm of the RNC, she was known for actively denying the results of the 2020 presidential election as well as spreading a number of other falsehoods.
Turmoil, particularly, has reportedly enveloped the newsroom of NBC’s MSNBC cable outlet, following Friday’s announcement that McDaniel had been hired as an on-air contributor for NBC News. The Wall Street Journal reported that there has been “internal backlash” over the hire.
Welker seemed to point at that controversy — and put some personal distance away from it — with the disclaimer she offered ahead of her interview with McDaniel.
“In full disclosure to our viewers, this interview was scheduled weeks before it was announced that McDaniel had become a paid NBC News contributor,” said Welker, who only ascended to the Meet The Press chair last September. “This will be a news interview, and I was not involved in her hiring.”
Watch the McDaniel encounter here:
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