NBC’s McDaniel mess threatens to explode

The uproar inside NBC over Ronna McDaniel’s hiring spilled into Monday morning as more of the network’s top personalities denounced the deal with the former RNC chair, escalating a battle over the relationship between powerful media companies and Donald Trump’s loyalists.

The decision to hire McDaniel, which was unanimously supported by top network executives, has already divided and destabilized one of America’s most storied news organizations, with internal dismay flaring on text chains and Slack channels since the deal was announced late last week.

The dissent broke into the open Sunday when the network’s top political analyst, Chuck Todd, pilloried executives moments after McDaniel’s first network appearance, an interview with Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.”

“There’s a reason why there’s a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this,” Todd told Welker, citing prior “gaslighting” and “character assassination” from McDaniel’s RNC.