Mick Mulvaney, a former White House chief of staff in the Trump administration, has joined CBS News as an on-air contributor
CBS faced internal backlash for hiring former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff as a paid on-air staffer when a news anchor claimed the network needed to hire more Republicans to prepare for an expected midterm election breakthrough.
Mick Mulvaney, who previously blasted CBS reporters and other journalists for fooling around with anti-Trump stories during his tenure in administration, joined the network this week after Trump’s former national security adviser H.R. McMaster and his former chief of staff Reince Priebus had been discontinued.
The hires come as the Washington Post reported that CBS News co-president Neeraj Khemlani recently told staff that Republican votes were needed on the network as he expects Democrats to be wiped out in the 2022 midterm elections.
“If you look at some of the people we hired on a contributory basis, making sure we get access both sides of the aisle is a priority because we know the Republicans are going to take over. most likely in the interim period,” Khemlani said in a leaked recording provided to the Post.
“A lot of the people we bring in help us access that side of the equation.”
CBS confirmed the new hiring practice in a statement, saying, “CBS News continues to expand its roster of contributors on both sides of the aisle ahead of the midterms and 2024 election.”
But CBS employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to comment on the recent hiring, said many at the company were frustrated and embarrassed that Mulvaney was coming to staff.
The hiring has sparked backlash within the staff of CBS News, as Mulvaney (right) was a staunch supporter of his former boss Donald Trump (left). Mulvaney was often confrontational with reporters during his tenure between January 2019 and March 2020
CBS News co-president Neeraj Khemlani (above) reportedly told employees that the company needs to bring in more Republican votes as he expects the GOP to claim resounding victories in the upcoming 2020 midterm elections
“I know everyone I spoke to today was embarrassed by the attitude,” a Post official said.
“Everyone is amazed,” added another employee.
A senior CBS News producer simply linked Mulvaney’s hiring to the 74.2 million Americans who voted for Trump in 2020, and suggested the company couldn’t risk losing potential viewers.
After joining the company Tuesday, Mulvaney said in a statement, “I’m excited to be working with CBS News. We need smarter conversations in this country, and CBS is working hard to make that happen.’
While the hiring of McMaster, who was hired in early March, and Priebus, who was hired in 2020, drew little protest from the company, Mulvaney appeared to draw more ire due to his previous outspoken defense of Trump.
In February 2020, Mulvaney accused journalists of trying to “take down the president” as reports and questions mounted about the coming coronavirus pandemic.
CBS previously hired Trump’s former chief of staff Reince Priebus (left) in 2020 and former national security adviser HR McMaster in early March
He also defended the Trump administration’s decision to withhold military aid from Ukraine, urging reporters to “get over it” when they questioned whether Trump sought quid pro quo from Ukraine in 2019 to investigate Joe Biden.
Mulvaney also slammed reporters for fears Trump would not engage in a peaceful transfer of power, despite the former president continuing to insist that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Mulvaney made his first official staff appearance on Tuesday morning, where he was introduced as a “former director of the Office of Management and Budget,” with presenter Anne-Marie Green not mentioning which administration Mulvaney worked for.
After the segment, the company’s standards department sent out a memo telling employees, “When introducing these people, we must always provide relevant background and biographical information,” including which administration a guest worked for, so the post.
CBS News’ latest hiring practice follows CNN’s hiring of former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin last year. CNN had also hired Chris Wallace, who left his popular position at Fox News to join the company’s new streaming service, CNN+.