MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski lost it Thursday over the media “cutting down” on Republicans just two days after their network fired former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
Scarborough and Brzezinski mocked journalists, particularly on the political right, for refusing to publicly utter any viewpoint that their boss opposes. They called on more people to have “core values” and speak their mind.
“And the Republicans that you named, you know, their crime in their party is that they spoke their mind,” Brzezinski said. “And the problem that we’re seeing right now is you have a lot of people on the media that leans to the right and has that take, is that they are right now cutting down people — for speaking their mind. They’re right now cutting down people who speak their mind despite who pays them. And they’re proving that they take one for the team every day!”
.@Morning_Joe is angry at the media “cutting down” Republicans just days after they called on their own network to fire Ronna McDaniel @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/OT98MNgjf7
— Nicole Silverio (@NicoleMSilverio) March 28, 2024
“And they actually admitted over the past week. They said ‘I would never say anything that my boss doesn’t want me to say. I would never speak my mind.’ They literally said that on the air. They called it insubordination and they assured their viewers that they would never speak their mind if their boss didn’t want them to speak their mind,” Scarborough said. (RELATED: ‘The View’ Co-Host Sunny Hostin Calls NBC News’ Decision To Hire Ronna McDaniel ‘Despicable’)
“No core values,” Brzezinski said.
The “Morning Joe” hosts, along with several other MSNBC hosts, raged at NBC News for hiring McDaniel and hoped the network would “reconsider” its decision. They particularly lamented McDaniel for arguing President Joe Biden did not fairly win the 2020 presidential election and her alleged phone call to urge Michigan election officials to not certify the votes in the Detroit area.
Following McDaniel’s Sunday debut on “Meet the Press,” NBC’s Chuck Todd demanded the network executives apologize to host Kristen Welker for having her interview the former RNC chairwoman.
WATCH: Chuck Todd just attacked his own network, NBC News, over hiring Ronna McDaniel. “Our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,” he told Kristen Welker on Meet the Press. “There’s a reason why there’s a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with… pic.twitter.com/gjjhy7s4TN
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) March 24, 2024
“She is now a paid contributor by NBC news,” Todd told Welker. “I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract. She wants us to believe that she was speaking for the RNC when the RNC was paying for it. 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’s paying her? Once at the RNC, she did say that. ‘Hey, I’m speaking for the party.’ I get that, that’s part of the job. So, what about here?”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said journalists have a duty to report the truth and protect democracy in regards to McDaniel’s hiring.
NBC announced Tuesday in a staff email that it had decided to terminate its agreement with McDaniel, according to NBC News.
“There is no doubt that the last several days have been difficult for the News Group. After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor,” NBC Universal Group Chairman reportedly wrote in a staff-wide email. “I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down. While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it.