Playbook: Inside NBC’s McDaniel meltdown

Presented by the Financial Services Forum

With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine

DRIVING THE DAY

SUDDENLY HE’S EVERYWHERE — “Big Republican Donor Jeff Yass Owned Shares in Trump Media Merger Partner,” by NYT’s Matthew Goldstein: “JEFF YASS, the billionaire Wall Street financier and Republican megadonor who is a major investor in the parent company of TikTok, was also the biggest institutional shareholder of the shell company that recently merged with former President DONALD J. TRUMP’s social media company.”

MEET THE MESS — Moments ago, JOE SCARBOROUGH and MIKA BRZEZINSKI became the latest voices at NBCUniversal News Group to criticize their company’s hiring of former RNC chair RONNA McDANIEL as a paid contributor.

“We weren’t asked our opinion of the hiring but, if we were, we would have strongly objected to it for several reasons,” Scarborough said at the top of “Morning Joe,” with Brzezinski adding, “We hope NBC will reconsider its decision. It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on ‘Morning Joe’ in her capacity as a paid contributor.” They then played a reel of McDaniel’s various comments questioning the outcome of the 2020 election.

Their comments come a day after CHUCK TODD pilloried NBC executives moments after McDaniel’s first network appearance, an interview with KRISTEN WELKER on “Meet the Press.”

“I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,” Todd told Welker. “There’s a reason why there’s a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.”

Other NBC and MSNBC hosts and contributors will undoubtedly now be under pressure to speak their minds as well. MSNBC’s prime-time lineup tonight will be worth watching.

These on-air protests may be a seminal moment in political media as news organizations continue to grapple with how to responsibly represent voices from the Trump right on their screens and in their pages without handing their platforms over to election deniers or bad faith actors who have attacked and attempted to discredit their own reporters.

The NBC-McDaniel relationship was forged last year when NBC executives wooed her to land a Republican presidential debate, which was a high priority at the network. CNN had beat NBC in the race for a Trump town hall, and securing a debate took on extra significance. McDaniel’s price included a rebuke to the company’s own cable network: MSNBC would not be allowed to simulcast the debate. NBC took the deal.

Through that process McDaniel built a good rapport with NBC News executives CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN, senior vice president of politics, and REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN, president of editorial. McDaniel left the RNC, signed on with CAA and went looking for a TV contract. While McDaniel had talks with other networks — she was trying to avoid working for CNN but had serious discussions with ABC — NBC always had the inside track. “Ronna had a good experience with Carrie and Rebecca and felt more comfortable than with some of the other networks,” a person close to McDaniel said.

The McDaniel deal was unanimously supported by leaders of all their networks, a knowledgeable person at NBC told us, including by RASHIDA JONES, president of MSNBC. The internal backlash began on Friday morning after Budoff Brown sent an email announcing that McDaniel would appear “across all NBC News platforms.”

That sent panic through MSNBC. The WSJ reported, “Jones told employees the cable network has no plans to have McDaniel on the channel.” The NBC source clarified to Playbook that there was no ban on McDaniel at MSNBC and that the cable network’s shows can use McDaniel as they see fit. (Don’t expect to see her there anytime soon.)

THE STEP-BACK: In talking to executives, hosts, correspondents, and producers yesterday in the wake of Todd’s public excoriation of NBC leadership, it was clear the problem stems from a breakdown in trust and communication among the company’s balkanized and ideologically fractured divisions.

First, there’s the message sent by hiring McDaniel on a nearly $300,000-a-year contract amid a growing sense inside the Washington bureau that Comcast sees its news division, which has been subject to recent layoffs and other cuts, as a divisive nuisance to be stripped down.

“Across MSNBC they have been cutting contributors,” said one of the network’s hosts. “So everyone’s like, what the fuck? You found 300 for her?”

And then there is the deep resentment of journalists who weren’t consulted about a critical election-year hire that was sure to attract criticism. “Meet the Press” and “Morning Joe” are the two main forums for political contributors, but the hosts of those shows weren’t asked for their opinion. McDaniel was booked on “Meet the Press” while she was negotiating her contract but Welker knew nothing about it until Thursday night, a day before the public announcement. Scarborough wasn’t consulted at all.

“No hosts or correspondents were given any kind of heads up on this,” said one person familiar with the situation. “People are pissed. It is a deeply unpopular move.”

If they had been consulted, several NBC political reporters told Playbook they would have told their bosses that McDaniel was not the prize they thought she was.

Their argument? McDaniel has no juice with the anti-Trump MITT ROMNEY-NIKKI HALEY wing of the party. (She literally removed Romney from her name, and Haley voters think she put her thumb on the scales for Trump during the primaries.) McDaniel is not especially close to GOP leaders in Congress. And if the point is to give NBC viewers more insight into Trump world, then why turn to the person who Trump just ousted from the RNC?

The Trump campaign was quietly celebrating Todd’s evisceration of McDaniel yesterday. (In the old days they might have tweeted about it. “Of course I want to,” said a top Trump official when asked for comment. “I just don’t think my doing so moves any votes our way. It’s this whole ‘disciplined campaign’ thing.”)

FLAILING PEACOCK: The divisions inside NBC are dizzying. Depending on who you talk to, the breakdown that led to McDaniel’s hiring is a result of some combination of (a) New York executives disrespecting Washington journalists; (b) newer NBC executives with a print background — Budoff Brown (formerly of POLITICO) and Blumenstein (formerly of the NYT) — disrespecting TV talent; and (c) NBC News disrespecting MSNBC.

The miscommunication extended to NBC’s dealings with McDaniel. She was originally under the impression that yesterday’s appearance would be part of her rollout as a new NBC contributor rather than the confrontational grilling it turned into. “How could the top brass be negotiating this and then not let Kristen Welker know she may be doing her interview with a paid contributor?” the source close to McDaniel asked in astonishment. “Usually contributors weigh in on this or that issue, not, like, answer these brutal questions for 20 minutes.”

But it was Todd’s outburst yesterday that crystallized the turmoil. It was in some ways the culmination of years of frustrations, laid bare by the guy who had lived through all of it.

Todd spent a decade in the MTP chair and suffered so much vitriol from anti-media attacks — on both the right and the left — that NBC regularly hired private security for him. There was internal criticism, too: By the end of his tenure, the show was being excessively micromanaged by executives, and he’d had clashes throughout with colleagues at MSNBC as he did much of the frustrating work trying to distinguish the non-ideological NBC News from its ideological cable cousin. But he won over that crowd yesterday.

“The fact that he took it upon himself to not only say this, but, frankly, to defend the woman who took his job, is pretty remarkable,” said a colleague. “He got a lot of attaboys from NBC News and MSNBC, including from people who are not prone to give him much credit.”

Some at “Meet the Press” knew in advance that Todd was privately upset about the decision, but the show’s team did not know the extent to which he would criticize it on air, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

TRUMP BACK IN COURT — It’s a big day on the Trump legal front: The ex-president is scheduled to appear at a hearing in Manhattan this morning where a judge will likely decide on a new court date for the hush money criminal case brought by DA ALVIN BRAGG. The trial was scheduled to start today but was delayed for 20 days after a new cache of documents was produced by federal prosecutors responding to a discovery request.

Related read: “Trump Seeks Again to Delay His Criminal Hush-Money Trial in Manhattan,” by NYT’s Ben Protess, Jesse McKinley and Kate Christobek

Additionally, today’s the deadline for Trump to pay the $454 million fine in his civil fraud case or post a bond. If the money doesn’t materialize, New York attorney general LETITIA JAMES can start the process of freezing the former president’s bank accounts or seizing his assets.

Related read: “What could happen as Trump faces deadline on half-billion-dollar bond,” by WaPo’s Jonathan O’Connell, Shayna Jacobs and Drew Harwell

THE WEEK — Tomorrow: ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. announces running mate in Oakland, California. President JOE BIDEN and VP KAMALA HARRIS visit North Carolina for official and campaign events. … Wednesday: Motions hearing in HUNTER BIDEN tax case held in Los Angeles. … Thursday: Biden heads to New York for a campaign fundraiser with BILL CLINTON and BARACK OBAMA. SAM BANKMAN-FRIED is sentenced in New York on multiple conspiracy convictions. … Friday: Good Friday. One-year anniversary of EVAN GERSHKOVICH’s arrest in Russia. February core PCE inflation numbers released. Biden leaves New York for Camp David. … Saturday: North Dakota holds Democratic presidential primary. … Sunday: Easter.

WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY

On the Hill

The Senate and the House are out.

What we’re watching … Is there any hope for the tax deal? It appears to be fading fast: The Senate left town early Saturday morning for a two-week recess with talks between Senate Finance Chair RON WYDEN (D-Ore.) and ranking member MIKE CRAPO (R-Idaho) at an impasse and GOP senators rallying against a pre-election deal. Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) put the House-passed bill on the chamber’s calendar but did not move to tee up a vote. “In other words,” as our friends at Morning Tax wrote last week, “the tax bill will almost certainly still be in a messy spot even when the Senate returns from its upcoming recess on April 8, just a week before the end of the tax filing season.”

At the White House

Biden and Harris will receive the President’s Daily Brief and have lunch together.

Harris will also have a bilateral meeting with Guatemalan President BERNARDO ARÉVALO and will host a Central America Forward roundtable to talk about private-sector investments in the region.

PLAYBOOK READS

ALL POLITICS

KIM’S CONVENIENCE — In a stunning move, New Jersey first lady TAMMY MURPHY dropped out of the Democratic Senate primary yesterday, likely paving the way for Rep. ANDY KIM to snag the nomination, the New Jersey Globe’s Joey Fox and David Wildstein scooped. Murphy said in her announcement video that remaining in the race would entail “a very divisive and negative campaign, which I am not willing to do,” and she didn’t want to “waste resources” on an intra-party fight. The Globe reports that Murphy and her advisers determined that reversing Kim’s momentum would be too difficult, despite her notable backing from much of the Democratic establishment and some recent county convention wins.

Murphy is not officially endorsing Kim but called for party unity in the race. His success would be a victory for grassroots forces in the state party, who chafed at New Jersey’s unusually machine-driven politics and the top-down optics of the governor’s wife being crowned the successor to Sen. BOB MENENDEZ.

The bigger picture is that New Jersey politics are seeing a tectonic shift this year, ironically triggered by Menendez’s blockbuster indictment on federal corruption charges, Matt Friedman reports. The state’s unusual ballot structure, which provides the “county line” preferential placement for party bosses’ handpicked candidates, is now under serious political and judicial threat. Kim, who is suing to overturn the system, said he’ll take the county line in places that had previously backed Murphy — but will continue with his lawsuit, per Daniel Han.

More top reads:

  • A handful of Black Democrats in the House are throwing their weight behind Prince George’s County Executive ANGELA ALSOBROOKS in the Maryland Democratic Senate primary after Rep. DAVID TRONE used a racial slur when he meant to say “bugaboo,” per Axios’ Stephen Neukam. Reps. JOYCE BEATTY (Ohio), YVETTE CLARKE (N.Y.), JASMINE CROCKETT (Texas), BARBARA LEE (Calif.) and GREGORY MEEKS (N.Y.) backed Alsobrooks.
  • Hoping all politics is local: Vulnerable Democratic Sens. SHERROD BROWN’s (Ohio) and JON TESTER’s (Mont.) “prospects essentially hinge on how successfully they can emphasize local investments they helped secure in Democrats’ big bills and their representation of their own constituents — rather than their key roles in determining who runs the Senate next year,” Burgess Everett reports.

JUDICIARY SQUARE

TOMORROW’S BIG CASE — “Abortion-Pill Case Puts Supreme Court Back in the Hot Seat,” by WSJ’s Laura Kusisto, Jess Bravin and Liz Essley Whyte: “At issue in Tuesday’s case is whether the Food and Drug Administration acted reasonably in adopting rules that have made it easier to obtain mifepristone since 2016. … In some ways, the abortion-pill case has the potential to affect a greater number of women than Dobbs.”

The view from the pharma industry: “From IVF to birth control, Supreme Court abortion pill case could spark challenges to other drugs,” by NBC’s Lawrence Hurley

CONGRESS

MIKE JOHNSON’S NEXT BIG DECISION — “House Democrats want Speaker Johnson to outline path on Ukraine aid before agreeing to save his job,” by CNN’s Manu Raju: “If Johnson were to announce he would take up the Senate’s $95 billion aid package, Democrats would vote in droves to keep him in the position … If Johnson tries to move on the House plan [that adds anti-immigration measures], Democrats may opt to save him but in smaller numbers.”

PULL UP A CHAIR — “House speaker juggles committee vacancies,” by Semafor’s Kadia Goba: “In the coming weeks, Republicans will need to select new leaders for two prominent committees, as well as fill at least a half dozen current or forthcoming vacancies on panels … The Speaker’s office told Semafor they’ll decide on at least one replacement this week, but declined to say which one.”

THE WHITE HOUSE

BORDER SONG — One month out from news that the Biden administration was considering drastic new anti-immigration executive actions, the White House still has yet to pull the trigger on them — and advocates say they’re likely not coming soon, Myah Ward reports this morning. The “sense of urgency” at 1600 Penn has simply abated as the number of migrant arrivals has fallen and other stories have taken up more real estate in the news cycle: White House aides feel less boxed in politically to take immediate action.

Still, none of the moves has been ruled out, and Biden could still jump in with new immigration policies at any point in the next weeks and months. That’s especially true if an expected seasonal uptick in border crossings arrives this spring. The so-called nuclear option of 212f, which could upend the country’s asylum system by limiting people’s ability to apply for asylum if they enter the U.S. illegally, is still on the table, Axios’ Stef Kight reports. Though there are questions about whether that could survive a court challenge, “internal conversations continue about expanding the president’s authority on the border.”

U.S. Border Patrol chief JASON OWENS told CBS’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez that he remains very concerned about the “national security threat” at the U.S.-Mexico border. Though Owens said the vast majority of migrants are good people, he’s particularly worried about the 140,000 people who have entered illegally without being apprehended in just the past five months.

2024 WATCH

SPOILER ALERT — “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. flirts with the Libertarian nomination,” by Brittany Gibson: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in talks to run on the Libertarian Party presidential ticket — a move that could translate his popularity into becoming a near-guaranteed choice on ballots in all 50 states. Libertarian Party Chair ANGELA McARDLE spoke with Kennedy in recent weeks … But there are factions within the party that aren’t open to lending their ballot line to a candidate who doesn’t completely align with the party’s manifesto.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY

THE ABORTION ELECTION? — Democrats are pushing hard to try to get an abortion rights measure onto the November ballot in Arizona, hoping that a resulting turnout boost could carry everyone from Biden to the state legislature, Alice Miranda Ollstein reports from Phoenix. Conservatives are expressing concern that they could be hurt by the referendum — and are trying to prevent it from getting on the ballot — while some prominent Republicans, like KARI LAKE, are taking pains to sound more moderate on the issue. National political groups are spending way more on Arizona’s ballot initiative fight than those in other states.

But, but, but: The data doesn’t necessarily bear out the narrative yet. POLITICO has found that abortion ballot initiatives haven’t improved Democratic turnout in other states, and abortion isn’t top of mind in some Arizona polling.

POLICY CORNER

FED UP — “Fed’s Powell Ready to Support Job Market, Even If It Means Lingering Inflation,” by Bloomberg’s Rich Miller: “Historically, once unemployment starts climbing, it goes up by a lot, as companies follow each other in announcing layoffs. By holding out the possibility of lower rates if the labor market weakens unduly, [JEROME] POWELL seems to be trying to short-circuit that process.”

AMERICA AND THE WORLD

RUSSIA LATEST — “Russia casts doubt on Islamic State responsibility for concert attack,” Reuters: “President VLADIMIR PUTIN has not publicly mentioned the Islamist militant group in connection with the attackers, who he said had been trying to escape to Ukraine.”

HAITI LATEST — “Another plane carrying US citizens fleeing Haiti lands in Florida,” by CNN’s Sarah Dewberry, Jennifer Hansler, Christina Maxouris and Eva Rothenberg

DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS — “How ‘Made in China’ Became American Gospel,” by Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson in Foreign Policy: “The canny marketing of imports from vodka to basketballs transformed the U.S.-China trade relationship.”

PLAYBOOKERS

Andrés Manuel López Obrador thinks Donald Trump will never shut down the border.

Joe Biden trolled Trump’s celebration of his golf awards.

OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a retirement party Saturday night for journalist Jeanne Cummings, hosted by Gerald Seib and Barbara Rosewicz: Al Hunt, Julie Bykowicz, Judy Woodruff, Susan Goldberg, Lisa Lerer, Reid Epstein, Mike Bender, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Rebecca Ballhaus, Ted Mann, Paul Beckett, Heather Timmons, Byron Tau, Josh Jamerson, Marisa Fernandez, Alex Leary, Brody Mullins, Vivian Salama, Sabrina Siddiqui, Annie Linskey, Catherine Lucey, James Hohmann, Ken Vogel, Peter Nicholas, Janet Hook, Aaron Zitner, Sheila Courter and Chad Day.

— SPOTTED last night at the 25th annual Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony celebrating Kevin Hart: Dave Chappelle, Jimmy Fallon, Chelsea Handler, Nelly, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Thicke, Deborah Rutter, David Rubenstein, Cappy McGarr, Ted Sarandos, Steve and Amy Ricchetti, Lorraine Voles, Dennis Cheng, Herbie Ziskend, Dan Koh, Erik Smith and Edith Gregson, Scott Kamins, Jessica Killin and Raj Date, Senay Bulbul, Liz Hart, Janice Lee, Liz Allen, Peter Neal, Mariana Adame, Stephanie Benedict, Eric Fanning, Daniel Lippman, Jeff Solnet, John McCarthy and Elizabeth Falcone.

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The Democratic National Convention Committee comms team in Chicago is fully staffed up with several new hires: Megha Bhattacharya as deputy director for surrogate comms, Jaidan Idarraga as assistant press secretary, Camille Candaele as surrogate comms manager and Leah Hurwitz as press assistant. Bhattacharya previously was adviser for strategic comms at the State Department, and Idarraga previously was speechwriter at the DNC.

TRANSITIONS — Kristina Aleksander is now comms director for Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.). She previously was comms director for the now-dissolved House Office of Diversity and Inclusion. … Frank O’Brien is launching O’Brien On Message, a new venture writing about nonprofit messaging. He previously was longtime president of O’Brien-Garrett, and is a DNC alum. … Shiv Patel is now a government relations associate at Axiom Space. He previously was government affairs lead at SpinLaunch.

WEEKEND WEDDING — Elise Sugarman, legislative director for Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), and Eric Wolfert, director of digital strategy at Sapphire Strategies, got married on Sunday in a waterfront ceremony at Sequoia in Georgetown. The two first met at Dacha in Shaw and have been together since 2019.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Gloria Steinem (9-0) … Bari Weiss … Erika Moritsugu of the White House … Sofia Kinzinger … Jordan Montoya … POLITICO’s Raymond Rapada and Emily Ngo … Michael Ortiz of Sequoia Capital Partners … Liz Timmons of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Dems … Joel Wanger of the Democratic Majority for Israel … AP’s Steven Sloan … Fox News’ Nick Kalman and Pat Ward … CAP’s Daniella Gibbs Léger … Katey McCutcheon of Firehouse Strategies … Raben’s Pete Weber … Marneé Banks … Emily Schillinger of the American Investment Council … Grant Dubler of Sen. Jacky Rosen’s (D-Nev.) office … Lauren Aronson of Mehlman Consulting … UPS’ Andrew Okuyiga … Patrick Bailey … Anthony Garrett … Lauryl Dodson Jackson … Sarah Eyman … Christopher Hale … Joe Chelak … Aaron David Miller … Carolyn Goodman … Arthur Allen … Chris Whipple … Pete Van Vleet … BCW’s Erica Cooke … Nicola Wenz … Kelton Morgan (55)

Send Playbookers tips to [email protected] or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike DeBonis, deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.

Clarification: This newsletter has been updated to clarify the circumstances surrounding the advance knowledge “Meet the Press” staff had of Chuck Todd’s critical comments about NBC executives.