Ronna McDaniel softens view on 2020 election after leaving RNC, being hired as TV contributor

In her first interview since stepping down as chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel softened her previous position that President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election without major questions and disagreed with former President Donald Trump over the Jan 6, 2021, Capitol riot and those who have been charged and convicted related to their participation in the attack.

During an appearance on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday, McDaniel -- who was recently brought on as an on-air contributor for the network -- indicated that she was now sharing her views because she was no longer at the helm of the party.

"When you're the RNC chair, you kind of take one for the whole team," said McDaniel, who was hand-picked by Trump in late 2016 to steer the party until he pushed for new leadership, resulting in her resignation a month ago in favor of two new leaders, including his daughter-in-law.

"Now," McDaniel said on NBC, "I get to be a little bit more myself."

Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee in 2024, has said that if he were to return to the White House, one of his first acts would be to pardon or "free" the people who have been charged related to Jan. 6, some of whom he has lauded as "patriots" and "hostages."

On Sunday, McDaniel said she disagreed with that and that she does not think that "people who committed violent acts on Jan. 6 should be free."

"I want to be very clear. The violence that happened on Jan. 6 is unacceptable. It doesn't represent our country. It certainly does not represent my party. We should not be attacking the Capitol ... If you attacked the Capitol and you have been convicted then that should stay," McDaniel said.

"I don't think we should be freeing people who violently attacked Capitol Hill police officers and attacked the Capitol," she added.

McDaniel also argued that Trump did not "want" the Jan. 6 attack to occur.

In 2022, the RNC under McDaniel backed a resolution suggesting that the events related to Jan. 6 were "legitimate political discourse," though party officials said that didn't mean they supported the riot itself.

On Sunday, McDaniel split with Trump on another of his key positions, saying on "Meet the Press" that Biden won the 2020 presidential election "fair and square" -- a departure from years of rejecting that he had genuinely earned the presidency.

"The reality is Joe Biden won. He's the president. He's the legitimate president," McDaniel said while still claiming that there were "problems" during the 2020 election.

"That does not mean he's not legitimate," she said.

No widespread election fraud has ever been confirmed by local officials or courts across the country.

McDaniel insisted she was not changing her tone "at all," despite the fact that she had repeatedly said in the past, without evidence, that Biden hadn't won fairly.

Last year, for example, she said on CNN that "I don't think he won it fair. I don't."

And in 2021, she said, "I think there were lots of problems with the election, and I think it needs to be looked at."

On Sunday, McDaniel defended a Nov. 17, 2020, phone call in which she and Trump were reportedly recorded urging GOP canvassers in Michigan not to sign a certification of the 2020 election results showing that Biden had won.

She wouldn't say she regretted making that phone call, insisting that she actually called the canvassers to check up on them after some of them had initially voted not to certify before changing their stance.

"Our call that night was to say, 'Are you OK?'" McDaniel said. "That's my recollection. It was three and a half years ago."

She said there had been public backlash to the canvassers as they weighed what to do and, despite what the recording reportedly showed, she told them to "vote your conscience" but wasn't "pushing them to do anything."

Liz Cheney, a former Republican congresswoman for Wyoming and prominent Trump critic, called out some of McDaniel's comments on NBC with a post on X.

Despite what McDaniel had said on "Meet the Press," Cheney contended that she had enabled "criminality & depravity" related to Trump's attacks on the 2020 election.

McDaniel drew other notable critics for her Sunday interview, including within the company to which she now contributes, with Chuck Todd and MSNBC "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski calling out her hiring.

"Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker had said that the interview was "scheduled weeks before" it was announced that McDaniel had become a paid contributor, that Welker was not involved in hiring McDaniel and that her appearance was strictly to address the news.

An NBC News spokeswoman had no comment about McDaniel's hire and her "Meet the Press" interview or the reaction it drew.

On Sunday, McDaniel mentioned that tensions with Trump over the RNC's primary debates contributed to her ousting and the former president's support of now-Chair Michael Whatley and the new co-chair, Lara Trump, to take her place.

"It was a lot of tension with the campaign," McDaniel said.

And despite saying during the primary that the party should consolidate around Trump while he was being challenged by Nikki Haley, McDaniel insisted that she was neutral during the nominating process.

McDaniel also touched on the Trump campaign's new joint fundraising agreement with the RNC that directs donations to his campaign and a political action committee that pays his legal bills before the RNC gets a cut.

She said that agreement "means that the campaign or the RNC is being truthful when they say they're not going to pay the legal bills."