When the Goals of a Retired Party Chair and a News Network Collide...

I always recommend reading Teri Kanefield's essays (you can find her blog here) - she brings a knowledgeable and no-nonsense legal perspective to the issues we're seeing now with the various Trump trials.

However, I disagree with her main point of argument she has made in her last two posts on the Ronna McDaniel/NBC News PR crisis (The Ronna McDaniel Story and The Ronna McDaniel Fallout), and I want to respond to that. In her second post on McDaniel, she says:

"Last week I argued that the executives erred in hiring McDaniel to appear on MSNBC because, given who McDaniels is and how she talks, it was foolish to think she could appear on an MSNBC show."

In her latest post on "Sex, Lies and Falsified Documents: Trump's First Criminal Trial," she follows up with this thought on McDaniel:

"I argued that McDaniel is hated and has no place on partisan talk shows because she hasn’t repented and will not deliver evocative performances of partisan identity."

The outrage over McDaniel's hiring wasn't because "she hasn't repented and will not deliver evocative performances of partisan identity." McDaniel is actually great at delivering partisan performances - and in fact, Ronna McDaniel's one-and-only appearance on "Meet the Press" as a paid NBC "partisan source" was indeed an example of an evocative partisan performance. 

Instead, it is my argument that issues around McDaniel's hiring and firing are not about her ability to perform adequately as a partisan source; my argument is that it legitimate to question whether or not a woman who worked with Trump to promote the Big Lie, the idea that the only reason Trump lost was because of rampant election fraud, should be hired by one of the oldest news organizations in America. Providing a Big Lie promoter with large public platforms (NBC and the various shows on MSNBC) is actually dangerous, not foolish. McDaniel has spent her time as RNC chair supporting the corruption and dishonesty of Donald Trump – she is a propagandist who has lied for Trump for years to undermine public faith in our elections. That kind of work experience should not be ignored by a news outlet, however interested they are in bringing "partisan sources" to their shows. 

SOME CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND

Ronna McDaniel was until recently the chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC.) McDaniel assumed the chair position in 2017; in her profession, she had gone by the name of Ronna Romney McDaniel until she famously dropped her maiden name (Romney) at the request of the party leader and president at that time, Donald Trump. Under her leadership, the party has lost the presidency, the Senate, and during the 2022 midterms, when pundits and polls were predicting a GOP blowout, Republicans emerged from the election with an extremely narrow majority in the House. 

In 2022, also under McDaniel's leadership, the RNC stated that the January 6th House investigation was a  "Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse" and the party censured the two Republicans involved in the January 6 committee investigating the insurrection, Liz Cheney & Adam Kinzinger. Here are some of the reasons why, according to the RNC resolution:

Winning back the majority in Congress, including the United States House of Representatives, in 2022 must be the primary goal of the House Republican Conference (Conference”) and requires all Republicans working together to accomplish the same;

WHEREAS, The Conference must design the strategy to stop the radical Biden agenda and retire Nancy Pelosi, tasks which require that all Republicans pull in the same direction;

WHEREAS, The Conference must not be sabotaged by Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who have demonstrated, with actions and words, that they support Democrat efforts to destroy President Trump more than they support winning back a Republican majority in 2022;

(There are more paragraphs that follow these - see the resolution for the entirety of the party's anger at Cheney & Kinzinger.)  Here is the conclusion of their resolution: 

WHEREAS, Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes, therefore, be it 

RESOLVED, That the Republican National Committee hereby formally censures Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and shall immediately cease any and all support of them as members of the Republican Party for their behavior which has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference.

As the resolution declares, the RNC Party clearly asserted that anyone who wanted to investigate Trump's role in the 1/6/21 insurrection was "destructive" to the party and to the House and to our republic. When a news media outlet hires as a "partisan source" a party leader who views the investigation into the violence that erupted at the Capitol on 1/6/21 as unfairly targeting "legitimate political discourse," they are normalizing a person who supports the party's interest in using violence as a means to power. And NO news organization should ever be a party to that. 

CABLE NEWS RELIANCE ON PERFORMANCE AND OUTRAGE IS NOT THE ISSUE WITH McDANIEL'S HIRE BY NBC

Teri's posts show well-sourced reasons why cable news shows provide inappropriate forums for real news. But in her posts on McDaniel, she obfuscates the problem by ignoring the evidence. The problem with the McDaniels hire isn't that cable news is reliant on outrage as entertainment instead of news or cable news outlets rely on "partisan sources" for entertainment – in fact, I agree with Teri that cable news is not news and its existence (regardless of political bias) depends on the need to ramp up outrage among its viewers. 

But her decision to treat McDaniel as simply just a partisan source who "could call her friends who are still on the inside of the Trump machine, but who are disillusioned with Trump and willing to talk to someone who they trust" ignores the reality of McDaniel's ties to Trump's work to overturn the election. "Access journalism" is not journalism; it is PR. Unfortunately, "access to PR spin" is a tend widely seen in national news media today. (Here is a recent example of press release "news" sourcing from NBC.) 

The problem is that in today's news media eco-system, hiring "partisan sources" who have engaged in work to overturn an election legitimizes election fraud. McDaniel is not simply a partisan resource to be snapped up by a news organization for all the access she can provide; she has participated in attacks on the press and she promoted Trump's Big Lie as recently as when she was on "Meet the Press" during her one-and-only appearance on NBC as a paid partisan source. She had also promoted Trump's big lie just a few months ago on a Chris Wallace cable news show (more on this later.) Her experience in working to overturn an election her boss lost should never be equated as the same as hiring a former spokesperson for a political party or a recent employee of a Republican or Democratic president. Using violence to overturn an election result is NOT "legitimate political discourse" and hiring someone who is still promoting the Big Lie delegitimizes news even further. 

From  Teri's post on "The Ronna McDaniel Story" 

Here is an example of how McDaniel responded to the question of whether she regretted her actions on November 17 when Trump “pushed Republicans not to certify the election” 

I’m glad you asked me about this, because I’ve never had a chance to respond to this. And if you know the course of what happened that night these two individuals went into a hearing, they voted no. They didn’t vote not to certify. They said, “You know, we want an audit.” There were some problems in Wayne County. They’ve been consistent. They’ve been well documented over subsequent elections. And they said, “As canvassers, we think we should have an audit before we certify.” That’s all they asked for. Once the public hearing opened they were called such vicious names, such vile names, family members were being threatened, that they changed their vote, and they left shaken. And I did call them and say, “Nobody” – and I think we should agree with – on this as Republicans and Democrats – “Nobody should be threatened or bullied or pushed to change a vote.” And that’s what happened to them. And I want to finish by saying our call that night was to say, “Are you okay?” That’s my recollection. It was three and a half years ago. These are people I knew. I live in Wayne County. “Are you okay? Are you all right? Vote your conscience,” not pushing them to do anything. And then let me finish – let me add one other thing. She [the person voting] was threatened to such a degree that somebody’s gone to jail. I’m not going to say the threats that she had . . .

See the problem? She’s trying to explain. She is muddying the waters. She is rationalizing. She minced her words.

I read the transcript but I have no idea whether McDaniel was telling the truth about what happened on November 17. Was her call perfectly innocent? Was she just calling her buddies to find out if they were okay after they were threatened?

Teri wonders if McDaniel's call was "perfectly innocent" - and suggests that McDaniel is adding valuable nuance and information about the 2020 election. That's a big stretch. The problem isn't that "she's trying to explain." On "Meet the Press," McDaniel is continuing to rehash unsubstantiated lies about election fraud. Whether or not Teri had no idea "whether McDaniel was telling the truth about what happened on November 2017," there is plenty of evidence that McDaniel had no evidence on November 17 of significant election fraud – because, as we all know in 2024, McDaniel has never ever provided any evidence of widespread voter fraud in Wayne County, Michigan or anywhere else. 

And to ignore that fact is a baffling choice for an accomplished attorney and writer like Teri Kanefield to make – especially considering there is a wealth of information about the Michigan election from both parties. 

In November 2020, the Michigan Secretary of State, a Democrat, issued a press release stating that "False claims from Ronna McDaniel have no merit."

In 2022 in Michigan, a GOP-led state senate committee issued a report that found that though there were changes that could be made to shore up the voting process, there was no evidence of wide-spread election fraud in Michigan in 2020. The report provided, among other details, information on Wayne County, the subject of Trump's 11/17/20 phone call to Michigan Republicans that McDaniel referenced on "Meet the Press:"

P. 9 – The Committee was also provided a list of over 200 individuals in Wayne County who were believed to be deceased yet had cast a ballot. A thorough review of individuals on that list showed only two instances where an individual appeared to have voted but was deceased. The first individual was a 118-year-old man whose son has the same name and lives at the same residence. The Committee found there was no fraud in this instance but was instead a clerical error made due to the identical name. The second individual was a 92-year-old woman who died four days before the November 2020 election. Research showed she had submitted her completed absentee ballot prior to the November 2020 election and prior to her death. Notably, research showed the secretary of state and clerks were able to discover and remove approximately 3,500 absentee ballots submitted by voters while they were alive but died before Election Day, which is a commendable accomplishment.

••••••••••

P. 12 – Additionally, there is significant evidence that the recruitment of Republican poll workers for Wayne County encountered significant obstacles. Many witnesses testified to volunteering but not hearing back from the county or being told there were already enough workers. Others testified to a particular moment at the TCF Center when workers were surveyed for party affiliation and only a few there raised their hands as Republicans. The Committee understands the logistics of recruiting Republicans for Wayne County and the city of Detroit can be difficult but finds the repeated reports of volunteers not being accepted or not having their emails returned troubling. Obtaining the proper ratios of partisan workers is of critical importance, especially ones from the local area. The Committee encourages the Wayne County Republican Party and officials in the county and city clerks' offices to work together to obtain the correct number of workers for each election. Further, the Committee asks the Bureau of Elections to investigate and provide to the Committee an evaluation of partisan poll worker recruitment in Wayne County and the city of Detroit. 

••••••••••

P. 14 – Finally, the Wayne County Republican Party and other, independent organizations, ought to issue a repudiation of the actions of certain individuals that created a panic and had untrained and unnumbered persons descend on the TCF Center. Both clerks and the parties need to take seriously their responsibilities of having properly trained and adequate personnel in place and the training ought to be uniform, regardless of party.

••••••••••

P. 24 – Developing best practices and training election workers on how to maintain balanced precincts Is recommended. There is much discussion on allowing some out-of-balance precincts to be eligible for recount but testimony the Committee heard from several clerks indicated they did not support this. Therefore, the Committee makes no recommendations on this issue. The Committee did learn during testimony that Wayne County's Board of Canvassers operates differently than most other counties, shifting the actual canvass responsibilities to the county clerk and their staff. Once the canvass is complete, the board receives a report, that is unusually anemic in its details of how imbalances were rectified. This is unfair to those serving on the board, as well as the voters of Wayne County, despite being permitted by law. A transparent canvass, overseen by those not responsible for the actual election process, allows citizens to understand how imbalances occurred and how they were rectified while having confidence that there was not a conflict of interest for those preforming the canvass. 

••••••••

P. 26 – If ballots were counted multiple times, this would have created a significant disparity in the official pollbook. This was the testimony of several witnesses, including Chris Thomas and Monica Palmer, Republican chair of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers. Specifically, the pollbook would show that many more votes were cast than the number of people obtaining a ballot. This was the case at several counting boards at the completion of the original tabulation. However, the actual imbalances that remained after the canvass show this problem was rectified. Rectifying precincts where this mistake happened is usually not difficult to do and involves taking the ballots out of the box, counting the total number to see if it matches the poll book, and processing all the ballots through the tabulator again. The balanced poll books and the remaining imbalances do not indicate this problem any more, showing it was corrected. Remaining imbalances are

likely connected to some of the other reasons addressed in finding number six, namely, empty envelopes, ruined ballots, etc. 

••••••••

P. 27 – Several claims were made regarding the voter turnout in the November 2020 election in which the statistical data was cited as a source to show widespread election impropriety. Comparing historical results casts serious doubt over any claims of widespread impropriety in the Michigan 2020 election. In fact, turnout in 2020 increased less in Wayne county (11.4%) than in the rest of the state (15.4%) and President Trump won a greater percentage of votes there than he did in 2016 (30.27% vs 29.3%). Additionally, the data suggests that there was no anomalous number of votes cast solely for the President, either in Wayne County or statewide...

P. 28 - regarding an unsourced report called "Case for Michigan Decertification" that presented "data" on vote fraud:  Regardless, the Committee can only speculate on this because the author of the referenced report cannot provide sources that the Committee can pursue. Without provision of a source to investigate from the author, and as no confirmation of these numbers was provided nor can be ascertained, the Committee does not believe a wide-ranging, blanket allowance to search materials is justifiable or responsible, particularly in light of the extent of the post-election state audit performed and the of lack red flags from the final results in Detroit or Wayne County. 

The right-leaning Heritage Foundation listed all those convicted of vote fraud in Michigan, and they found 16 convictions between 2007 and 2023. 

In spring of 2024, by the time McDaniel rolled into her first and only day on the job at NBC via her interview on "Meet the Press,", the information was available to anyone about the 2020 election, and it's pretty clear that Trump, the RNC and McDaniel had no evidence of election fraud at the time of the November call to Wayne County Michigan Republicans – and most certainly, no evidence has been presented by the RNC that shows there was widespread voter fraud in Wayne County, Michigan (or elsewhere.) Instead of "nuance" and "information," McDaniel was promoting a lie when she claimed the call was about "concern" for the election workers. 

And on her first foray into being a "partisan source" for NBC, McDaniel continued to be a good party soldier and promote the idea that there were significant problems with the 2020 election. Here are her own words from the "Meet the Press" transcript:

KRISTEN WELKER:

Did you not have a responsibility as the RNC chair to say – before January 6th – "The election is not rigged," that Donald Trump lost, given that there were audits, given that there were more than 60 court cases that occurred all across the country and that Donald Trump lost?

RONNA McDANIEL:

The reality is Joe Biden won. He's the president. He's the legitimate president. I have always said, and I continue to say, there were issues in 2020. I believe that both can be true. You can say,

 

KRISTEN WELKER:

Did you not have a responsibility as the RNC chair to say – before January 6th – "The election is not rigged," that Donald Trump lost, given that there were audits, given that there were more than 60 court cases that occurred all across the country and that Donald Trump lost?

RONNA McDANIEL:

The reality is Joe Biden won. He's the president. He's the legitimate president. I have always said, and I continue to say, there were issues in 2020. I believe that both can be true. You can say, "Massive laws were changed. They were changed through courts or through secretaries of state and not through the legislative process, in the name of the pandemic, that took away safeguards to the election" –

McDaniel did not answer Kristen Welker's question about her responsibility as party chair to push back on election fraud lies. Instead, she brought up the Big Lie - "there were issues in 2020." Certainly she has the right to say: "Massive laws were changed. They were changed through courts or through secretaries of state and not through the legislative process, in the name of the pandemic, that took away safeguards to the election." 

But that she has the right to say it does not mean she has the sources to back up her claim that these "massive" changes resulted in Biden unfairly (illegally) assuming the presidency. And in reality, there are no sources that back up her claim of massive election fraud caused by Covid-inspired changes to voting laws in 2020. 

A woman who continues in 2024 to assert that there were issues with the 2020 election because "massive laws were changed" etc. in her first day on the job as a "partisan source" years after investigations showed no widespread voter fraud in Michigan (or anywhere else in the country) is using her new job to continue to promote dangerous propaganda. In 2024, it's clear that McDaniel never had evidence of significant election fraud, but she never let that fact stop her from insinuating "there were issues in 2020." 

In fact, there are multiple stories about how the November 17, 2020 call by Trump & McDaniel to Michigan election workers was indeed an attempt at coercion, not support for GOP election workers. It wasn't until after the call from the president and party chair that the two GOP workers tried to rescind their certification of Wayne County (the county that contains Detroit) ballots. The didn't just call for an audit, as McDaniel claimed in her 2024 "Meet the Press Interview" where she asserted: "They didn’t vote not to certify. They said, “You know, we want an audit.” 

That's actually false. After the Trump call, the two GOP canvassers in Wayne County voted to rescind their certification. The election was Tuesday, 11/3/20; the call from the president & party chair was on Tuesday 11/17/20, the story on the two Wayne County Republicans rescinding certification was published in the Detroit News on Thursday 11/19/20.

From the Nov. 19, 2020 story in the Detroit News:

Two Republican Wayne County canvassers have signed affidavits saying they regret their votes Tuesday to certify the Nov. 3 election, arguing that "intense bullying and coercion" plus bad legal advice forced them to agree to certify the election after they had voted no. 

Canvassers Monica Palmer and William Hartmann have claimed the promises made to them of a "comprehensive audit" of the Nov. 3 election should they certify "will not be fulfilled." Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced Thursday her office would conduct some local performance audits, but did not say in which jurisdictions. 

 "I rescind my prior vote to certify Wayne County elections," Palmer said in anaffidavit signed Wednesday night. "I fully believe the Wayne County vote should not be certified." 

 

It's pretty clear that the integrity of the election process in Michigan was not necessarily from the "massive" changes to election laws because of Covid, but because McDaniel's party had participated in an illegal scheme to overturn the election Trump lost. 

From a July 2023 story in Reuters: 

July 18 (Reuters) - Michigan's attorney general on Tuesday announced felony charges against 16 Republicans for participating in an alleged "false elector" scheme that aimed to overturn then-President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss in the battleground state.

While more than 1,000 people have been charged with crimes related to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol -- the day Congress met to certify the election result -- the Michigan felonies mark the first time anyone has been charged for trying to overturn Trump's defeat via the political system.

(NOTE: This case is still winding its way through the judicial system.) 

From a December 2023 story in the Detroit News: 

Then-President Donald Trump personally pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to sign the certification of the 2020 presidential election, according to recordings reviewed by The Detroit News and revealed publicly for the first time.

On a Nov. 17, 2020, phone call, which also involved Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Trump told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the two GOP Wayne County canvassers, they'd look 'terrible' if they signed the documents after they first voted in opposition and then later in the same meeting voted to approve certification of the county’s election results, according to the recordings.

"We've got to fight for our country,' said Trump on the recordings, made by a person who was present for the call with Palmer and Hartmann. "We can't let these people take our country away from us."

McDaniel, a Michigan native and the leader of the Republican Party nationally, said at another point in the call, "If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. ... We will get you attorneys."

To which Trump added: "We'll take care of that."

Palmer and Hartmann left the canvassers meeting without signing the official statement of votes for Wayne County, and the following day, they unsuccessfully attempted to rescind their votes in favor of certification, filing legal affidavits claiming they were pressured. 

The moves from Palmer, Hartmann and Trump, had they been successful, threatened to throw the statewide certification of Michigan's 2020 election into doubt. 

 

From a December 2023 AP story: 

Donald Trump pressured two election officials not to certify 2020 vote totals in a key Michigan county, according to a recording of a post-election phone call disclosed in a new report by The Detroit News. 

The former president's 2024 campaign neither confirmed nor denied the recording’s legitimacy, insisting in a statement that all of Trump’s actions after his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden were taken to uphold his oath of office and ensure fair elections. 

Trump has consistently repeated falsehoods about the 2020 election as he runs again for the White House. No evidence of voter fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election has since emerged in a litany of federal, state and outside investigations. 

 "BOTH-SIDES'ING" INSURRECTION IS NOT GOOD JOURNALISM

In this moment of history, where one party has abandoned the rule of law and supports a candidate who is woefully unfit for the position of president of the United States, it is appropriate for the news outlet's reporters (and the public) to question the organization for its decision to hire the woman who supported Trump's criminality and lies and corruption throughout her term as head of the RNC. 

I don't understand why Teri decided to underplay McDaniel's role in promoting the Big Lie. She noted in her blog "Someone [full disclosure - this was me] on Threads accused me of “minimizing” McDaniel’s role in the insurrection. (In fact, I [Teri] didn’t mention it at all.)"

I don't understand why Teri felt that Ronna's role in promoting the Big Lie should be ignored. As noted above, when McDaniel was party chair, the GOP issued a resolution that claimed that the House investigation into the violence at 1/6/21 was punishing Americans engaged in "legitimate political discourse." As party chair, McDaniel moved to censure and remove support from Republicans who worked across the aisle to investigate the violence at the Capitol on 1/6/21. 

Maybe Teri didn't know what McDaniel was thinking when she and the president called Michigan Republicans in November of 2020, after Trump lost Michigan. But there is plenty of evidence that the goal was to coerce Michigan Republicans to illegally work to overturn the election Trump lost. It's appropriate to question a "partisan source" on her claims that she believes Biden is the legitimate president when less than a year earlier, that "partisan source" was claiming that the election was stolen from Trump.

Here's what she said during a July 2023 interview with Chris Wallace:

WALLACE: Do you think [Biden] won the election?

MCDANIEL: I think there were lots of problems with question 2020. Ultimately, he won the election.

WALLACE: Pardon?

MCDANIEL: Ultimately he won the election but there were lots of problems with the 2020 election, 100%.

WALLACE: And that’s fair.

MCDANIEL: But I don’t think he won it fair. I don’t. I’m not gonna say that. 

Once again, McDaniel presented no proof that Joe Biden cheated his way unfairly into the presidency. And less than a year later on Meet the Press in 2024 while at her new professional home for the day, she promoted the Big Lie that Biden was president as the result of an election that had signifiant issues with the election process. Once again, McDaniel is seeding doubt about the US electoral process. 

The problem with McDaniel's hire by NBC wasn't the cable news hosts' ire over her hire or that she won't deliver the right kind of partisan performance - it was the decision by NBC news executives to hire a Big Lie promoter as a legitimate source of political information. Hiring a Big Lie spox is one more way national news media legitimizes the corruption and anti-democracy tendencies of a party that continues to be devoted to challenging the rule of law whenever it can. 

I agree with Teri that cable news is entertainment, not news. And like Teri, I do not watch Rachel Maddow or other cable news performers. But recognizing the flaws of cable "news" does not mean that we should pretend McDaniel is just like every other "partisan source" used by cable news networks. She was originally hired to work on NBC News, one of the oldest news networks in the country. The NBC executives then "sweetened the pot" by offering her access to MSNBC shows – all this despite the fact that in her role as RNC chair, McDaniel attacked news outlets and worked to undermine faith in US elections. 

I agree with Teri when she says her take "is that all misinformation is harmful, particularly when spread by major outlets." And that's why the decision to hire McDaniel was the problem, not the "star-power protests" against the hire.  As Jon Allsop in the Columbia Journalism Review noted, "Chuck Todd’s on-air broadside against his own bosses was surprising. It was also, as I see it, spot on (even if saying that McDaniel has “credibility issues” might be the understatement of the year)." In Poynter, writer Tom Jones also notes that not only does McDaniel have a serious credibility problem, "her actions, most notably around the 2020 election, put the country and our very democracy at risk."

Someone who has publicly lied as much as McDaniel - in the service of her former employer, the RNC - SHOULD be questioned as to how truthful she is when is then paid by NBC. On that same Chris Wallace show where she promoted the Big Lie, she said she was not familiar with the RNC resolution censuring Cheney & Kinzinger, and thought the censure only referred to Liz Cheney (indicating a sloppy incompetence at best at her last job); and that she didn't think the resolution needed to condemn violence at the Capitol because of course no one supports violence at the Capitol. She later claimed in the "Meet the Press" interview that Trump did not want the violence to happen at the capital except that when there was violence at the Capitol on 1/6/21, Trump did nothing to stop it.

Though during her one-and-only performance on "Meet the Press as an NBC "partisan source," McDaniel said Biden was the president,  she made it clear through her statements that she was continuing to fight the dishonest fight against the 2020 election irregularities – though she has never presented  any evidence of significant voter fraud in any state that would have overturned the certified results of the 2020 election.  

A party chair – regardless of party – who worked with a candidate to overturn a presidential election and shed doubt - without any evidence of fraud – about the legitimacy of our elections is never a good choice for a news outlet. Ever.