CBS News’ controversial hiring of ex-Trump official Mick Mulvaney may have been foretold by CBS News President Neeraj Khemlani earlier in March.
In a recording obtained by The Washington Post on Wednesday, Khemlani told staffers: “If you look at some of the people that we’ve been hiring on a contributor basis, being able to make sure that we are getting access to both sides of the aisle is a priority because we know the Republicans are going to take over, most likely, in the midterms. A lot of the people that we’re bringing in are helping us in terms of access to that side of the equation.”
CBS’s decision to employ Mulvaney as a paid on-air contributor “embarrassed” employees, one unnamed worker told the Post. An MSNBC op-ed called the far-right pol a “partisan hack.”
As Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mulvaney once claimed that media coverage of the coronavirus crisis aimed to bring down the president. He admitted that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine in exchange for political dirt, telling reporters to “get over it.” He then walked back his comments.
Mulvaney appeared on CBS News on Tuesday, calling President Joe Biden’s proposal of a minimum tax rate on extremely wealthy households “really difficult” to implement, the Post noted.
Mainstream outlets have been hiring political figures from the Trump administration recently.
CBS hired former national security adviser H.R. McMaster a few weeks ago, and CNN brought former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin on board late last year.