In December, Detroit News’ Craig Mauger described a previously unreported November 17, 2020 call involving then-President Trump, Ronna McDaniel, and the two Republican canvassers who were equivocating over certifying Wayne County, Michigan’s election results.
On the call, McDaniel instructed Monica Palmer and William Hartmann to go home without certifying the result and “we will get you attorneys.”
On a Nov. 17, 2020, phone call, which also involved Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Trump told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the two GOP Wayne County canvassers, they’d look “terrible” if they signed the documents after they first voted in opposition and then later in the same meeting voted to approve certification of the county’s election results, according to the recordings.
“We’ve got to fight for our country,” said Trump on the recordings, made by a person who was present for the call with Palmer and Hartmann. “We can’t let these people take our country away from us.”
McDaniel, a Michigan native and the leader of the Republican Party nationally, said at another point in the call, “If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys.”
To which Trump added: “We’ll take care of that.”
Palmer and Hartmann left the canvassers meeting without signing the official statement of votes for Wayne County, and the following day, they unsuccessfully attempted to rescind their votes in favor of certification, filing legal affidavits claiming they were pressured.
The report, which still hasn’t been widely covered nationally, is a testament not just that Ronna McDaniel played a key role in a conspiracy to steal the election, but also that there’s still a great deal we don’t know about that 2020 conspiracy.
And yet those two details have been largely (in the case of McDaniel’s role in a criminal conspiracy) or almost entirely (that there’s a bunch we still don’t know about Ronna’s role) absent from the “debate” over NBC’s stupid hiring, then firing, of the former GOP Chair.
Even solid lefties (including many people at NBC properties) are describing the problem with hiring Ronna Not-Romney to be entirely about her lying — about her willingness to lie about the 2020 election.
They are not describing that NBC should no more aim for diversity by hiring murder or rape suspects than they should choose to hire key players in a criminal attempt to overturn democracy.
Ronna occupies the sweet spot where the ongoing criminal investigation in Michigan and the ongoing criminal Jack Smith investigation might merge.
You purport to be a news organization, NBC!!! How could you hire someone who, the least little vetting would suggest, might be indicted at both state and federal levels in the not too distant future?
And about that: You purport to be a news organization, NBC.
This is what I don’t understand. Given all that we don’t yet know about the coup attempt — given that Craig Mauger, at least, is still producing scoops about Ronna’s role — why did you ever consider Ronna as a candidate for hiring rather than a candidate for four months of investigative focus?
Which is my real puzzlement. Once executives realized what a stupid mistake they had made, it seems they had a better alternative than simply firing Ronna, paying whatever she was contracted to get, only to feed right wing grievance culture.
Why didn’t you use the opportunity to grill Ronna about those details we don’t yet know? Why didn’t you define her “commentary” role to be entirely about answering questions from Ari Melber or Rachel Maddow about what calls she did have during the 2020 transition?
After just a few such sessions, I would imagine that Ronna Not-Romney would have removed herself from the situation. She would have self-deported.
And along the way, she would have properly been treated as an ongoing news subject, the focus of ongoing reporting on Republican attempts to steal the election.