NBC's Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow rejoice in ex-RNC chair Ronna McDaniel's firing - as boss's spineless memo apologizing to left-leaning reporters is revealed

NBC's Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow rejoiced after receiving the news that their network boss had decided to drop ex-RNC chair Ronna McDaniel after falling prey to intense backlash from the far-left anchors. 

NBCUniversal News Group chairman Cesar Conde sent an apologetic memo to staffers Tuesday announcing that McDaniel was out. 

'There is no doubt that the last several days have been difficult for the News Group. After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor,' he announced. 

Conde said the initial decision was made due to the network's 'deep commitment to presenting our audiences with a widely diverse set of viewpoints and experiences, particularly during these consequential times.' 

Ironically, the big boss could not uphold the network's so-called 'value' for 'diverse viewpoints' as he quickly succumb to the whines of his far-left hosts who have been furiously calling for McDaniel's ousting since her first appearance as a contributor. 

'I want to personally apologize to our team members who felt we let them down,' Conde continued. 'While this was a collective recommendation by some members of our leadership team, I approved it and take full responsibility for it.' 

NBC anchors were thrilled to hear the news - and couldn't wait to share their excitement on air with their viewers. 

'I know I felt very strongly about it, I know you felt very strongly about it,' Joy Reid, host of The ReidOut, said.  'And I just have to say, when somebody does the right thing, I feel like it should be acknowledged as publicly as we acknowledged our outrage.'

'I know how I feel about it. I'm grateful to Cesar for actually making the right decision. I think it was the right decision,' she added. 

'I will just say that journalists are a fractious bunch,' Maddow said.

Maddow stated, 'To see essentially the unanimous feeling among all the journalists in this building and all the senior staff and all the producers and everybody in this building about this was one thing.'

'But then to see the executives and the leadership hear that and respond to it and be willing to change course based on it, based on their respect for us and hearing what we argued, I have deep respect for that,' she continued. 

Maddow said it was 'a show of strength' for Conde to admit fault and a 'show of respect for the people who work at this company and who make us who we are.'

'That leadership was willing to change on this, and I'm grateful to them,' she said.

Sources told Deadline that McDaniel has also been dropped by CAA and McDaniel was seeking potential legal options.

  
The former top Republican is set to be gone within a week of her hiring, and has responded by seeking legal representation, Puck News says. 

It comes after the network's top political analyst Chuck Todd erupted into an on-air rant about McDaniel's hiring, particularly taking issue with her support for Donald Trump's false 2020 election fraud claims. 

Todd's meltdown was quickly followed by other liberal media stars, with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow describing the hiring as 'inexplicable' and said she hoped bosses would 'reconsider that decision.'

Fury at McDaniel's hiring reportedly began behind closed doors, with top contributors taking offense to not being asked their opinions beforehand.

On Sunday, two days after McDaniel's new role was announced, this spilled over into Todd's hosting of his show Meet the Press as he launched into a scathing takedown of his bosses.

Todd told his successor Kristen Welker that NBC executives had put her in an 'impossible situation' by having her interview McDaniel on her first appearance. 

'Let me deal with the elephant in the room,' Todd said. 'I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation, because I don't know what to believe.' 

When McDaniel appeared with Welker for the first time as an employee of the network, she seemed intent on distancing herself from her past rhetoric.

She insisted that Biden won the 2020 election 'fair and square', adding, 'He's the president. He's the legitimate president.'

McDaniel had only stepped down as RNC chief two weeks before she was announced as a paid NBC contributor. 

Amid the backlash, MSNBC said she would not be appearing on the network and would only feature on NBC, as many of its top anchors followed Todd's lead in sounding off in public.

Amid confusion over the capacity in which McDaniel would appear, Rachel Maddow took the opportunity to also take a shot at her bosses. 

She said that MSNBC bosses had approved the hiring, but when faced with outrage, they then walked back the possibility of her translating over from NBC. 

Maddow said company executives had been attempting to 'muddy that up in the press' and make it appear they hadn't caved to pressure.  

'I can assure that, that is what happened at MSNBC,' she said.

Following this, 'Morning Joe' hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski vowed to not have McDaniel on their show, as Brzezinski said she would not welcome 'a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier.' 

While the liberal network melted down over the hiring, others felt the criticism was hypocritical, because Democrat stars such as former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki have seamlessly moved from politics to punditry. 

Another ex-White House Press Secretary, Trump's Sean Spicer, questioned: 'Did (Todd) ever show concern about Jen Psaki joining the left-wing network?... Didn't think so.' 

NewsNation correspondent Geraldo Rivera also waded into the controversy, claiming that the backlash was fueled by 'pretentious bulls***.'

'Really, all of these people that have a stick up their behinds, how dare they!' he said. 

'Chuck Todd, I don't remember his nine years at Meet the Press as being exactly triumphant. You know, she is the ultimate insider, and to say that they don't want to hire her now because of election denialism, well then you don't want half the country to watch your network.

'Half the country is Republican, more or less, and they believe – a lot of them – or at least they've convinced themselves, about the election being, you know, fraudulent or whatever it is.'

Psaki, now host of MSNBC's 'Inside with Jen Psaki, chimed in on the controversy, and said experience in front-line politics 'only matters and only has value to viewers if it is paired with honesty and good faith.' 

Todd also said critics of his response were being intentionally dishonest, and he was offended by the hiring of an election denier, not that McDaniel was a Republican.

'This is about whether honest journalists are supposed to lend their credibility to someone who intentionally tried to ruin ours,' he said on X. 

Todd's takedown of the network was seen by some as a watershed moment, with it previously unheard of for a contributor to blast a colleague's employment live on the air. 

McDaniel had served as RNC Chair since 2017, after previously serving as chair of the Michigan Republican Party and helped deliver the state for Trump in 2016. 

She is the granddaughter of late Michigan Governor George Romney and niece of Utah Senator Mitt Romney.

However, her tenure made her unpopular among some factions in the Republican Party, particularly as the party lost ground in the House, Senate and White House over varying midterms and presidential elections.