Former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is joining NBC News as an on-air contributor ahead of the 2024 presidential election — after a pressure campaign by Donald Trump for her to step aside.
McDaniel will appear on the network this Sunday on “Meet the Press,” where she will be interviewed by with Kristen Welker — her first interview since stepping down from the RNC, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Insiders told the outlet that conversations about the interview began well before she was hired as a contributor.
Adding McDaniel to NBC’s lineup, which will include lending her commentary to MNSBC and NBC News Now programming, adds an “insider’s perspective” on national politics, the future of the Republican Party and the key battleground of Michigan, where she lives.
Carrie Budoff Brown, who leads NBC News’ politics and elections reporting, said this in a memo sent to employees.
“It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team,” Brown added.
Representatives for NBC did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
NBC and MSNBC are both subsidiaries of Comcast, which drew Trump’s ire during his presidential term.
Should he win his rematch against Biden, Trump has vowed to investigate the media giant — which he bashed as a “dishonest and corrupt” with “one-sided coverage” as recently as September in a Truth Social post.
“I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events,” the former commander in chief wrote.
McDaniel, 50, stepped aside on March 8 — three days after the Super Tuesday primaries.
McDaniel revealed that her exit came at the suggestion of the 45th president, who had been a staunch ally of the former head of the Michigan Republican party when she took over the leadership role within the RNC in 2017.
Michael Whatley, the head of the North Carolina Republican Party, was elected unanimously as the new chairman of the RNC.
Former first daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the only candidate up for RNC co-chair, was also unanimously voted into that position.
In her goodbye remarks earlier this month, McDaniel said that she will continue to “do everything possible to re-elect President Trump in November.”
“And I ask all of you out there who worked so hard during this primary season or supported another candidate, that you come in and join me in supporting our president as well.”
Her voice broke as she recounted the support her husband, Patrick, has given her throughout her seven-year reign before endorsing Whatley and Trump as chair and co-chair.
“President Trump deserves to have the change in place he wants in place at the RNC,” McDaniel said, after announcing the 77-year-old as the presumptive Republican nominee and asking for those in agreement for “yeas” — and refusing to ask for “nays.”
The RNC typically holds multi-day meetings, but the election to replace McDaniel was held in the space of one morning.
There were just 38 proxies present at the meeting, coming in as substitutes for RNC members who couldn’t make the event that was announced just over a week before.
