President Joe Biden believes that the press plays a “critical” role in protecting democracy, the White House said, when asked for the president’s reaction to NBC News hiring former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel as a political analyst.
Journalists’ roles include ensuring the public “knows” the truth and facts about Jan. 6, per White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“What he said is, ‘We need you, democracy is at risk, and the American people need to know, in fractured times, they need a context and a perspective, they need substance to match the enormity of the task,’” Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday, quoting Biden’s speech at this month’s Gridiron Dinner with members of the media.
“It is a big task that journalists have, and we understand that, and the facts and the truth are critical here,” she said in her own words. “I’m not going to make any comments on a personnel decision, but, more broadly speaking, it is important. It is a burden on all of us here to be really mindful about that.”
NBC and MSNBC reporters and anchors, including Chuck Todd on Sunday and Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Monday morning, criticized the news organization’s decision to hire McDaniel over her participation in Trump’s so-called fake electors scheme, such as taking part in a phone call with the former president about not certifying the election results.
“NBC News should seek out conservative, Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage, but it should be conservative Republicans and not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier. And we hope NBC will reconsider its decision,” Brzezinski said.
Despite her support of the former president, Trump pressured McDaniel to resign from her position earlier this month, replacing her with former North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. Trump had reportedly grown frustrated with McDaniel, in part because she refused to pay for all of his legal bills.
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During her debut appearance last weekend, McDaniel put more distance between herself and Trump, contending you have to “take one for the whole team” as chair and that Jan. 6 convicted felons should not be freed.
“Now I get to be a little bit more myself, right?” she told NBC. “This is what I believe: I don’t think violence should be in our political discourse, Republican or Democrat. … I agree with [Trump] on a whole host of other things — let’s close the border, let’s make sure we have good incomes for people, let’s make sure we do a lot of great things — but on that point, I don’t think we should be freeing people who violently attacked Capitol Hill police officers and attacked the Capitol.”