Congress
Chuck Todd

Chuck Todd

Two days after NBC News' Friday, March 22 announcement that former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel had been hired by the network as a political analyst, NBC's Meet the Press host Kristen Welker interviewed the ex-GOP leader Sunday, grilling McDaniel about past statements she's made disregarding the 2020 presidential election results.

After years of pushing ex-President Donald Trump's Big Lie that the election was stolen from him by President Joe Biden and the Democrats, the former RNC chair told Welker. "The reality is Joe Biden won." CNN reports McDaniel has "has repeatedly attacked the network and its journalists, assailed the news media as 'fake news' and promoted false claims around the 2020 vote, as an on-air commentator ahead of the 2024 presidential election."

Following her conversation with McDaniel, Welker sat down with former Meet the Press host and NBC News veteran Chuck Todd, asking him to share his "takeaways" from the interview.

"Look, let me deal with the elephant in the room," Todd said, telling Welker, "I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation because I don't know what to believe. She is now a paid contributor by NBC News. I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn't want to mess up her contract."

The former NBC host continued, "She wants us to believe she was speaking for the RNC, when the RNC was paying for her. 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 is paying her? Once at the RNC she did say that, Hey I'm speaking for her party, I get that, that's part of the job. So, what about here?"

Todd added, "I will say this: I think your interview did a good job at exposing many of the contradictions. And look, there's a reason why a lot of journalists at NBC are uncomfortable with this because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination. So, that's where you begin here. And so, when NBC made the decision to give her NBC News' credibility, you gotta ask yourself what does she bring NBC News?"

"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. I'm willing to have that debate. 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 talking to her, but let's see how she does in some interviews,' and maybe vet her with actual journalists inside the network.

Todd emphasized, "I do think, unfortunately this interview is always gonna be looked through the prism of, 'who is she speaking for?'" I think you did everything you could do," Todd told Welker. "You got put into an impossible situation. Booking this interview, and then all of a sudden the rug is pulled out from under you, and you find out she's being paid to show up?"

"It's unfortunate for this program, but I am glad that you did the best that you could," he added.

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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Democrats Vowing To Protect Johnson As Speaker -- On One Condition

Rep. Abigail Spanberger

Photo by Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS

Just five months after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) succeeded ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced last week that she plans to file a motion to vacate the seat — once again — if Johnson agrees to bring the the bipartisan package, which includes Ukraine aid, to the House floor.

Axios reported Friday that Democratic lawmakers, like Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who don't agree with Johnson on policy, are still willing to help him keep the speakership if it means voting against Greene.

The Florida leader wrote via X/Twitter, "I do not support Speaker Johnson but I will never stand by and let MTG to[sic] take over the people’s House."

According to a Sunday, March 24 CNN report, several other Democratic lawmakers willing to assist Johnson with maintaining his position say they will only do so if the speaker agrees to move forward on the $95 billion aid package that the US Senate already approved last month.

The news outlet notes, "While the exact timing remains unclear, the first procedural vote to oust Johnson is expected to take the form of a 'motion to table' – or kill – fellow Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resolution to vacate the speakership. Democrats are weighing whether to kill the resolution on the first procedural vote, but say they need to hear the speaker publicly outline his intentions on Ukraine aid."

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) told CNN if Johnson "does the responsible thing, which is allowing members of Congress to vote on a bill that will pass and that is in our national security interests, and subsequent to that a non-serious actor that doesn’t want to govern brings a motion to vacate, yes I would motion to table in that circumstance."

According to CNN, some GOP House members worry "that Greene’s move to oust Johnson could cost them the House in November, though some hardliners are weighing whether they would ultimately vote to remove him."

The news outlet reports House Homeland Security Chair Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) said, "I’m disappointed. … I think it’s a distraction. We need to just – unfortunately this bill passed, and we’ve got a lot of other stuff now to do, some articles to walk over… we don’t need anything that’s going to disrupt that." He added that he hopes "Greene will ultimately decide not to call up her resolution for a vote, saying, "I don’t think we’ll let that happen this time. I mean, we’ll see how it goes, but I don’t think that’s going to happen."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.