The Biden administration snags four MSNBC contributors. The four leave MSNBC.
What We Know:
- The four contributors are health expert Ezekiel Emanuel, legal analyst Barbara McQuade, political analyst Richard Stengel, and historian Jon Meacham. The network will no longer pay the four. They will be moving on to work with Biden, and some have already started.
- Emanuel was previously the special advisor for health policy to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget director from 2009 to 2011. Emanuel will serve on Biden’s coronavirus task force. He is currently under fire for a piece he wrote in 2014. In the article, he writes, “Living too long is also a loss… it renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived.” He stated that he hopes to be dead by 75.
- Barbara McQuade, former US attorney for Michigan, joins Biden’s legal agency review group.
- Richard Stengel served under the Obama administration as Under Secretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs. He is also the former TIME magazine editor. He joins Biden’s agency for global media team.
- Jon Meacham was dropped by the network, as he failed to mention his involvement with Biden’s victory speech. Meacham won the 2009 Pulitzer prize for his biography of Andrew Jackson. Meacham is not expected to take a permanent role at the White House.
- Similarly, CNN’s Jen Psaki has also revealed she will be leaving the network to join Biden and a senior adviser.
- MSNBC’s contract does not allow their contributors to do paid work with presidential campaigns or run for office.
MSNBC will invite back the contributors as unpaid guests, and there will be full disclosure of their relationship with the Biden administration.
