Three paid MSNBC contributors have left the cable news network to join President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team. Legal analyst Barbara McQuade has joined Biden’s legal review team. Health expert Ezekiel Emanuel has joined Biden’s coronavirus task force — he’s the brother of former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. And political analyst Richard Stengel will be on Biden’s U.S. Agency for Global Media. In 2018, Stengel told the Council on Foreign Relations about his work as the top communications specialist at the U.S. State Department.
Richard Stengel: “My old job at the State Department was what people used to joke as the chief propagandist job. … I’m not against propaganda. Every country does it, and they have to do it to their own population. And I don’t necessarily think it’s that awful.”
A fourth paid MSNBC analyst, historian Jon Meacham, was removed from his role after it was revealed he helped write Biden’s victory speech.