U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who’s said he wants a job with a cable news station, may not have been at the center of Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election and undermine our democracy but he waded deeply enough in that direction that he shouldn’t be hired as a commentator on a legitimate TV news network.
NBC’s decision to hire former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has been blasted by several of the network’s own journalists, including former Meet the Press anchor Chuck Todd, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell, and others.
They say that as RNC chair, McDaniel is essentially a war criminal, a former leader of Trump’s battle to undermine democracy — and should be ostracized not promoted on TV.
That internal backlash is at least part of the reason NBC is now planning to drop McDaniel, according to Puck News reporter Dylan Byers.
As Liz Cheney wrote on X: “Ronna facilitated Trump’s corrupt fake elector plot [and] his effort to pressure [Michigan] officials not to certify the legitimate election outcome. She spread his lies & called Jan. 6 ‘legitimate political discourse.’”
Buck, who’s expressed interest in a job at a cable news outlet, may not have gone that far, but he was still an enemy of democracy, who, like McDaniel, switched sides and turned against election deniers.
Buck signed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s evidence-free lawsuit that put America’s democracy on the ropes by trying to delay the certification of the vote in enough states to overturn Biden’s legitimate victory. This was arguably one of the most serious threats — if still a long shot — at overturning the 2020 results.
Later Buck joined other representatives in affirming the election but stating, without evidence, “We, like most Americans, are outraged at the significant abuses in our election system resulting from the reckless adoption of mail-in ballots and the lack of safeguards maintained to guarantee that only legitimate votes are cast and counted. It is shameful that between both chambers of the U.S. Congress, we have held precisely one hearing on election integrity since Election Day. The people cannot trust a system that refuses to guarantee that only legal votes are cast to select its leaders. The elections held in at least six battleground states raise profound questions, and it is a legal, constitutional, and moral imperative that they be answered.”
A month after the 2020 election, Buck continued to cast doubt on Biden’s victory nationally, saying, “It is so important that people have confidence in their election, that people understand that — I can’t speak for other states — in Colorado, we are doing it the right way and we have confidence in our election results,” Buck said.
Colorado Newsline’s Quentin Young outlined more of Buck’s crafty form of election denialism here.
Now the retiring congressman seems to want a job in journalism.
“I am interested in talking to folks at CNN and other news organizations — on the, I don’t want to call them left, but sort of center-left — and having an opportunity to do that full-time or do that as a contributor would be great also,” Buck told the New York Post, adding that he was interested in Fox News or Newsmax as well.
“I didn’t want to give you the impression that I’ve only talked to folks at CNN, on the left. I’ve also talked to others about this,” Buck told the Post.
Later, in early October, Buck denied that he was interested in being hired by a cable news outlet, but that was well before he announced his early retirement from Congress, leaving him — at least possibly — in the job market.
Using the Ronna McDaniel standard, no serious journalistic entity should hire him. Like so many Republicans, he’s tainted and should not be rewarded for his flip-flopping on democracy with a job in journalism.
