The former chair of the Republican National Committee has finally said that President Joe Biden is the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election — more than three years after the fact.
NBC News quickly hired McDaniel as a political analyst. The decision caused alarm among some current and former anchors at the news organization.
McDaniel previously questioned the validity of Biden’s 2020 win and referred to investigations of the January 6 Capitol riot as “persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse.” She’s been no friend to the press, either.
But in her first appearance as an analyst on NBC News, McDaniel said on Sunday that Biden won the 2020 presidential election “fair and square.”
Kristin Welker, the host of “Meet the Press” on NBC News, pressed McDaniel, noting for the audience ahead of the segment that she was uninvolved in the decision to hire McDaniel.
“He won. He’s the legitimate president. Fair and square, he won. It’s certified. It’s done,” McDaniel said. “I do think it’s fair to say there were problems in 2020 and to say that does not mean he’s not the legitimate president.”
But that answer “suggests that there was something wrong with the election,” Welker said.
Despite GOP claims of rigging and foul play, the 2020 presidential election was highly scrutinized and considered the “most secure in American history” by the Department of Homeland Security, Business Insider previously reported.
“This is a viewpoint of a lot of Republicans, and they think Joe Biden’s the president. But they also think there were problems, and both can be true,” McDaniel said. “Saying there’s concerns about the election doesn’t mean he didn’t win, and that’s the only thing I’m going to say.”
After McDaniel’s portion of the segment was over, Welker was joined by a panel of other journalists who were critical of McDaniel, including longtime “Meet the Press” host Chris Todd.
“I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation because I don’t know what to believe,” Todd told Welker during the panel. “She is now a paid contributor by NBC News, so I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract.“
A spokesperson for NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.
