All eyes on Ronna at NBC

NBC’s decision to hire former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor has made lots of folks angry. The backlash was so strong, in fact, that days after its parent company brought in McDaniel as a political analyst, MSNBC’s president, Rashida Jones, announced that the former chairwoman won’t be contributing on air to the cable network. McDaniel appeared for her first hit as a contributor on NBC’s long-running Sunday show Meet the Press and was interviewed by anchor Kristen Welker. The former RNC leader declined to fully fall on her sword; she rejected some…

NBC’s decision to hire former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor has made lots of folks angry. The backlash was so strong, in fact, that days after its parent company brought in McDaniel as a political analyst, MSNBC’s president, Rashida Jones, announced that the former chairwoman won’t be contributing on air to the cable network.

McDaniel appeared for her first hit as a contributor on NBC’s long-running Sunday show Meet the Press and was interviewed by anchor Kristen Welker. The former RNC leader declined to fully fall on her sword; she rejected some of the statements she had to make in her previous political position, such as defending Trump’s comments about January 6 defendants and election fraud, but painted it as all part of the job. This didn’t sit well with Welker — who uncomfortably grilled McDaniel the entire segment — or with other NBC and MSNBC hosts.

Chuck Todd, the former host of Meet the Press, appeared on his old show and blasted his bosses, telling Welker they “owe you an apology for putting you in this situation.”

“There’s a reason why there are a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, 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,” Todd added.

On Monday, Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski called on NBC to reconsider its decision to hire McDaniel.

“To be clear, 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,” Brzezinski said.

With MSNBC barring McDaniel from its programming, the former chairwoman can still technically contribute to Meet the Press — albeit, as evidenced by Todd’s comments, she doesn’t have many friends there. There is also NBC’s Today Show and Nightly News, but those two also seem an unlikely fit for McDaniel to appear regularly.

What comes next for McDaniel is unclear. NBC may opt to buy her out of her contract, or she may continue to collect the reported $300,000 without having to make any appearances. Former OMB director Mick Mulvaney faced a similar dilemma when he was hired by CBS News; staff revolted internally, and he only appeared a handful of times on the network before defecting to NewsNation and CNBC.

What we do know is that by accepting the new gig, McDaniel has made more enemies than friends. By joining a network with the likes of Rachel Maddow and Jen Psaki, McDaniel, who previously attempted a MAGA makeover, is now increasingly seen as a turncoat by conservatives. She has also failed to convince her new left-wing brethren that she is willing to play ball with them à la former RNC chairman Michael Steele.

In politics, apparently some sins are unforgivable.

-Juan P. Villasmil

On our radar

LIBERAL CAT AND DOG FIGHT Democratic strategist James Carville blamed his party’s electoral troubles on “too many preachy females,” a comment that sparked ire from Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who quipped, “Maybe he should start a podcast about it. I hear men are really underrepresented in that space.”

BOEING UNDER The CEO of Boeing, Dave Calhoun, and other senior executives are stepping down after a series of mechanical failures have raised major safety concerns and tanked the company’s stock since the start of the year.

UN VOTES FOR CEASEFIRE The US neglected to veto a non-binding UN resolution calling for a “lasting sustainable ceasefire” in the Israel-Palestine war, causing Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu to cancel an upcoming diplomatic visit to the States.

Mixed bag for Trump trials

Donald Trump got both good and bad news in his seemingly never-ending legal battles this week, winning a massive reduction to his bond in his civil fraud case while losing his bid to delay the trial for his hush-money case.

The civil fraud case has dominated headlines recently, with an astronomic bond that totaled just under half a billion dollars — and is now reduced to a paltry $175 million. If he fails to post the requisite bond while he appeals Judge Arthur Engoron’s fine, New York’s Attorney General Letitia James has already threatened to start seizing his assets.

Fortunately for Trump, some of his allies are coming to the rescue in just the nick of time. His social media app, Truth Social, is being acquired for a deal worth upwards of $5 billion, which will give the former president immense sums of money; his majority stake is valued at more than $3 billion.

While Trump is a vastly richer man now than he was just last week, he did lose his motion to outright dismiss Alvin Bragg’s hush-money case, which stems from a series of payments he allegedly made to his disgraced former lawyer, Michael Cohen — to pay off adult film star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors claim Trump falsified business records by marking the payments as part of a legal retainer rather than a campaign expense. Judge Juan Merchan also denied a motion to delay the trial further; it will begin on April 15.

Trump, for his part, is putting quite the spin on the case. “It could also make me more popular because the people know it’s a scam,” he said earlier today.

–Matthew Foldi

The abortion pill’s day in court

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that challenges the FDA’s decision to remove safety standards surrounding mifepristone, a drug that induces abortion. In 2021, the FDA removed a regulation that required women to see a doctor in person before getting access to mifepristone. This opened the door for women to receive abortion drugs in the mail and have an abortion at home without ever having to go see a medical professional.

The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine argues that the FDA’s arbitrary decision to remove these safety standards has put women at risk.

Some women may take abortion pills without knowing they suffer from an ectopic pregnancy, for example, causing them to confuse symptoms of their non-viable pregnancy with symptoms from the pill. This can delay care for this life-threatening condition. Others may get access to abortion pills in their second or third trimester, which limits the efficacy of the drug and raises potential complications. Mail-order abortion pills also remove the ability of doctors or other healthcare providers to screen women who might be coerced into ending their pregnancy.

The FDA is also accused of undercounting serious adverse effects in its studies of mifepristone.

The Supreme Court will decide whether to uphold the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s ruling that the FDA has to go back to its pre-2016 safety standards regarding the abortion pill.

–Amber Duke