NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker is in hot water after misleading the audience about the hiring of former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
During an interview this week, Welker introduced McDaniel as a guest, emphasizing that the former RNC chairwoman’s appearance had been arranged weeks in advance and that Welker was not involved.
“This interview was scheduled weeks before it was announced that McDaniel would become a paid NBC News contributor. This will be a news interview. And I was not involved in her hiring,” Welker stated.
However, a close source to McDaniel told Politico that Welker stretched the truth. The source provided private text messages revealing that Welker and NBC News Senior Vice President of Politics Carrie Budoff Brown had met with McDaniel in February. This was after Brown spoke to McDaniel’s team about her joining the network as a potential contributor.
The alleged off-the-record conversation was a way for Brown to get to know McDaniel, causing speculation that Welker was aware of McDaniel’s future hiring at the network.
An NBC insider, however, told Politico that “[Welker] was not part of those talks. She was fenced off and insulated from discussions about a potential contributor agreement.”
McDaniel was fired from her paid contribution role this week after editorial staff expressed their dissatisfaction with her hiring.
MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid, and Joe Scarborough all spoke out against McDaniel joining the news team.
Maddow compared McDaniel’s hiring to the likening of “putting a mobster to work in a district attorney’s office.”
“This isn’t about Republican versus Democrat. This isn’t about red versus blue. This is about truth versus lies. Service to the country versus service to one man committed to toppling our democratic system,” Psaki said.
