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Tag: ronna mcdaniel
Chuck Todd

'Impossible Situation': Chuck Todd Assails NBC Brass Over McDaniel Hire

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.

Ronna McDaniel

Rove: RNC Chair 'In Trouble' Over 'Highly Inappropriate' Call With Trump

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel “is in trouble” after she was recorded on a phone call with former president Donald Trump pressuring two Michigan electors to change their votes certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to GOP strategist Karl Rove.

Speaking with Fox News’ John Roberts, Rove was asked about recent reporting from the Detroit News about “a recorded phone conversation between former President Donald Trump, the RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and two Wayne County Board of Election officials.”

Roberts notes the Detroit News reporters described a conversation “about certifying the 2020 presidential election,” in which Trump is quoted “as saying ‘We’ve got to fight for our country. We can’t let these people take our country away from us.'"

In the recording, McDaniel tells the election workers, “If you can go home tonight do not sign it, we will get you attorneys.”

“We will take care of that,” Trump adds, according to the Detroit News.

The election workers subsequently “tried to rescind their votes,” Roberts notes.

“I think the former president’s got a problem with this,” Rove said. “They had voted to certify the election, he attempted to force them to change their decision, which they tried to do. I think this is what we would call ‘election interference.’”

Rove noted that same behavior got Trump “into trouble in Georgia.”

“This is a problem, the former president should not have been doing this,” Rove said.

“This is not a good move if accurate and if this tape is true,” he added. “The former president’s created another problem for himself.”

Asked if it creates “a problem for Ronna McDaniel,” Rove said the RNC chair could be in hot water because of the leaked phone call.

“I think it is, I think the chairman is in trouble here,” Rove said, calling the conversation “highly inappropriate.”

Watch the videos below or a this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Republican National Committee

RNC Feud With Trump Escalates As Third Primary Debate Approaches

Days before the Republican National Committee (RNC) holds its third debate in Miami, Florida on November 8, tension between the organization and ex-President Donald Trump has quickly escalated, CNN reports.

Per the news outlet, although the former president skipped the first two GOP debates, his choice to host "what appears to be a competing event in the same area" on the same day of the third debate is what's causing tensions to rise.

"It's a slap in the face [to the RNC]," a Republican close to the RNC told CNN. "An intentional slap in the face."

The ex-president criticized the party committee when the first debate was announced, alleging that "the RNC didn't get 'approval' from him or his campaign ahead of announcing the debates, though presidential candidates do not have singular control over the format or timing of these events."

Furthermore, a Republican official with knowledge of the matter and RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said Trump and his team knew about the debates.

CNN reports:

The debate fight came to a head when RNC officials met with Trump's senior campaign advisers in Nashville last spring at the RNC retreat to sort out what had become a public back and forth, multiple sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.

The conversation turned into a heated back-and-forth between David Bossie, who is in charge of the RNC debate committee, and Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita.

The 2024 MAGA hopeful became "increasingly frustrated" when Bossie and McDaniel traveled to Trump's New Jersey estate in efforts to convince him to attend the debates, according to the news outlet.

"Sitting there, having Bossie and Ronna tell him that it's a good idea to go to a debate where he's going to get the crap kicked out of him by all the other candidates, never mind the moderators, there's no upside," the source told CNN. "He didn't appreciate it. It just started to grate on him."

Regarding Trump's decision to host a Florida rally on the same night as the November 8 debate, Florida GOP Chairman Christian Ziegler recently told the Miami Herald, "I think it's good for the party. It helps rally people; gets them informed and energized. I don't care who the candidate is — Donald Trump or Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis or whoever. If they're having events in Florida, Republicans are getting off the couch and are more likely to vote."

However, the Republican with RNC ties told CNN, "The reality is 50 percent of the base is with him – that means there's another 50 percent that's not. That 50 percent has to feel like there's a fair process that played out if they're going to turn out if Trump is nominated and actually vote for him."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Republican National Committee

Republican National Committee Vows To 'Go On Offense' Over Abortion

Republicans didn’t get the big red wave they expected in November’s elections, thanks to voter anger over harsh abortion bans. So how are Republicans going to do better in 2024? By embracing harsh abortion bans, if the Republican National Committee has anything to say about it. That’s the party’s official position as laid out at length in a resolution passed by the RNC on Monday.

See, the problem is that Republicans didn’t talk about abortion enough in 2022. “Instead of fighting back and exposing Democratic extremism on abortion, many Republican candidates failed to remind Americans of our proud heritage of challenging slavery, segregation, and the forces eroding the family and the sanctity of human life, thereby allowing Democrats to define our longtime position,” in the resolution’s words.

The RNC passed the resolution in the wake of Ronna McDaniel’s reelection as chair and, in that context, it looks like a Kevin McCarthy-style concession to the far right. McDaniel was reelected easily compared with McCarthy’s 15 rounds of speaker votes, but the chair fight drew enough attention, and her opponents drew enough votes, to give her reason to try to shore up her right flank. As ways of doing that go, though, “more abortion bans” is a glorious gift to Democrats.

The resolution for action moving forward is twofold. First, there’s a plan to “go on offense,” aka lie. “The Republican National Committee urges all Republican pro-life candidates, consultants, and other national Republican Political Action Committees to remember this proud heritage, go on offense in the 2024 election cycle, and expose the Democrats’ extreme position of supporting abortion on-demand up until the moment of birth, paid for by the taxpayers, even supporting discriminatory abortions such as gender selection or when the child has been diagnosed with Down syndrome.”

That is simply not the position of the Democratic Party. So that’s step one: “Hey, Republicans, you didn’t lie about Democrats enough in 2022! Fix that in 2024!”

The second part of the action plan is to pass more anti-abortion laws, specifically ones based on disinformation. Yep, voters dealt you a historic rebuke in 2022 over the anti-abortion laws you had already passed, but this time is going to be different.

“The Republican National Committee urges Republican lawmakers in state legislatures and in Congress to pass the strongest pro-life legislation possible – such as laws that acknowledge the beating hearts and experiences of pain in the unborn – underscoring the new relics of barbarism the Democratic Party represents as we approach the 2024 cycle.”

The “beating hearts” part means six-week abortion bans based on the first signs of cardiac activity that come long before anything that could reasonably be described as a heart has formed. Those bans prohibit abortion starting at a point before many people know they are pregnant.

The “experiences of pain” part is a mainstay of Republican anti-abortion legislation, often used as an argument for 15-week abortion bans. Except a 15-week fetus does not and cannot feel pain. Here’s what the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has to say on the issue: “The science conclusively establishes that a human fetus does not have the capacity to experience pain until after at least 24–25 weeks. Every major medical organization that has examined this issue and peer-reviewed studies on the matter have consistently reached the conclusion that abortion before this point does not result in the perception of pain in a fetus.” The 24 to 25 weeks at which the capacity to feel pain develops, by the way, is also right around the viability threshold that was a critical part of the rights guaranteed under Roe v. Wade.

The RNC probably thinks that part one of the plan—tell lies about Democrats being the real extremists on abortion—will overwhelm part two of the plan—pass more of the kind of laws that voters rose up against last year. But the losses of hardcore anti-abortion politicians like Arizona Senate nominee Blake Masters, Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, and Michigan gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon suggest that “go harder on abortion” may not be the key to success in battleground states.

If Republicans want to try that, though, please proceed. Anti-abortion bills are not going to get through the U.S. Senate or get President Joe Biden’s signature, but if House Republicans want to pre-write Democratic campaign ads by passing some message bills showing what they would do to ban abortion at the federal level if Republicans got full control of government … great, thanks guys. If Republicans manage to pass more state-level abortion restrictions, real suffering will follow in those states, as has already kicked off in the states that have passed harsh restrictions.

But the low-hanging fruit has already been picked—the states that don’t yet have abortion bans are probably ones where, even if Republicans propose such bills, they may encounter trouble passing them, potentially even from fellow Republicans who look at what happened in 2022 and decide that maybe extreme opposition to abortion is not a winning tactic.

Abortion, and the long-term consequences of banning it, aren't going anywhere as political issues because they're not going anywhere in people’s lives. If Republicans want to keep being loud and proud about which side they’re on, that’s helpful in ensuring that voters know what their votes mean when Election Day rolls around.

​Frequently Asked Questions:

What is the official position of the Republican National Committee (RNC) on abortion?

The RNC passed a resolution calling for Republican candidates to embrace harsh abortion bans in an effort to do better in the 2024 elections. The resolution also calls for Republicans to "go on offense" and lie about the Democratic Party's stance on abortion and for Republican lawmakers to pass more anti-abortion laws.

Why did Republicans perform poorly in the 2022 elections with regards to abortion?

According to the RNC, Republicans failed to talk about abortion enough in the 2022 elections, allowing the Democrats to define their stance on the issue.

What is the first part of the RNC's action plan regarding abortion?

The first part of the RNC's action plan is for Republicans to "go on offense" and lie about the Democratic Party's stance on abortion, claiming they support abortion "on-demand up until the moment of birth, paid for by the taxpayers."

What is the second part of the RNC's action plan regarding abortion?

The second part of the RNC's action plan is for Republican lawmakers to pass more anti-abortion laws, specifically ones based on misinformation, such as six-week abortion bans based on the first signs of cardiac activity.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.