Former RNC chair dissects Ronna McDaniel’s NBC ouster

On Sunday, former Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus — now an ABC contributor — addressed the controversy over Ronna McDaniel’s rapid hiring and firing as a contributor at NBC News.

“The case on Ronna that I find to be obvious for someone like me who's a contributor here. … I've never been hired without the management bringing me in, meeting with people, doing interviews where I wasn't on a signed contract, finding whether or not I could get off the talking points or not,” Priebus said in discussing one of his successors at the RNC on Sunday during a roundtable discussion on ABC’s “This Week.” The roundtable also featured a former DNC chair, Donna Brazile.

“The root of the problem is that the management never brought her in before the contract was signed so that all of this stuff could get worked out, and that was a huge failure in my opinion,” Priebus added.

McDaniel first appeared as a paid contributor on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” last Sunday, sparking immediate on-air backlash from the network’s chief political analyst Chuck Todd. After less than a week of internal tumult, NBC severed ties with McDaniel, whose past denial that President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election caused concern about her ability to serve as a reliable on-air narrator.

Brazile said Sunday she didn’t have a reaction to the McDaniel situation. “I didn't understand the hire,” Brazile said. "So I have none. But I've enjoyed every year of my life being on shows like this and cable television."