NBC 'drops' former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as paid contributor less than a week after role was announced

NBC News is already planning to drop ex-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel as a contributor following backlash from inside the network, reports claim. 

The former top Republican is set to be gone within a week of her hiring, and has responded by seeking legal representation, Puck News says. 

It comes after the network's top political analyst Chuck Todd erupted into an on-air rant about McDaniel's hiring, particularly taking issue with her support for Donald Trump's false 2020 election fraud claims. 

Todd's meltdown was quickly followed by other liberal media stars, with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow describing the hiring as 'inexplicable' and said she hoped bosses would 'reconsider that decision.' 

NBC News is already planning to drop ex-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel (pictured) as a contributor following backlash from inside the network

McDaniel's reported ousting comes after NBC analyst Chuck Todd (pictured) erupted into an on-air rant about her hiring on his show, Meet the Press 

Fury at McDaniel's hiring reportedly began behind closed doors, with top contributors taking offense to not being asked their opinions beforehand.

On Sunday, two days after McDaniel's new role was announced, this spilled over into Todd's hosting of his show Meet the Press as he launched into a scathing takedown of his bosses.

Todd told his successor Kristen Welker that NBC executives had put her in an 'impossible situation' by having her interview McDaniel on her first appearance. 

'Let me deal with the elephant in the room,' Todd said. 'I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation, because I don't know what to believe.' 

When McDaniel appeared with Welker for the first time as an employee of the network, she seemed intent on distancing herself from her past rhetoric.

She insisted that Biden won the 2020 election 'fair and square', adding: 'He's the president. He's the legitimate president.'

McDaniel had only stepped down as RNC chief two weeks before she was announced as a paid NBC contributor. 

Amid the backlash, MSNBC said she would not be appearing on the network and would only feature on NBC, as many of its top anchors followed Todd's lead in sounding off in public. 

Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, now an MSNBC host with her own show, was cited by critics as an example of how Democrats seamlessly move from politics to punditry 

Amid confusion over the capacity in which McDaniel would appear, Rachel Maddow took the opportunity to also take a shot at her bosses. 

She said that MSNBC bosses had approved the hiring, but when faced with outrage, they then walked back the possibility of her translating over from NBC. 

Maddow said company executives had been attempting to 'muddy that up in the press' and make it appear they hadn't caved to pressure.  

'I can assure that, that is what happened at MSNBC,' she said.

Following this, 'Morning Joe' hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski vowed to not have McDaniel on their show, as Brzezinski said she would not welcome 'a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier.' 

While the liberal network melted down over the hiring, others felt the criticism was hypocritical, because Democrat stars such as former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki have seamlessly moved from politics to punditry. 

Another ex-White House Press Secretary, Trump's Sean Spicer, questioned: 'Did (Todd) ever show concern about Jen Psaki joining the left-wing network?... Didn't think so.' 

NewsNation correspondent Geraldo Rivera also waded into the controversy, claiming that the backlash was fueled by 'pretentious bulls***.'

'Really, all of these people that have a stick up their behinds, how dare they!' he said. 

'Chuck Todd, I don't remember his nine years at Meet the Press as being exactly triumphant. You know, she is the ultimate insider, and to say that they don't want to hire her now because of election denialism, well then you don't want half the country to watch your network.

'Half the country is Republican, more or less, and they believe – a lot of them – or at least they've convinced themselves, about the election being, you know, fraudulent or whatever it is.' 

On her first appearance as a paid contributor to NBC, McDaniel appeared intent on rolling back her past rhetoric and admitted Biden won in 2020 

Psaki, now host of MSNBC's 'Inside with Jen Psaki, chimed in on the controversy, and said experience in front-line politics 'only matters and only has value to viewers if it is paired with honesty and good faith.' 

Todd also said critics of his response were being intentionally dishonest, and he was offended by the hiring of an election denier, not that McDaniel was a Republican.

'This is about whether honest journalists are supposed to lend their credibility to someone who intentionally tried to ruin ours,' he said on X. 

Todd's takedown of the network was seen by some as a watershed moment, with it previously unheard of for a contributor to blast a colleague's employment live on the air. 

McDaniel had served as RNC Chair since 2017, after previously serving as chair of the Michigan Republican Party and helped deliver the state for Trump in 2016. 

She is the granddaughter of late Michigan Governor George Romney and niece of Utah Senator Mitt Romney.

However, her tenure made her unpopular among some factions in the Republican Party, particularly as the party lost ground in the House, Senate and White House over varying midterms and presidential elections.