Reince Priebus announced that Republican National Committee officials and staffers will boycott appearing on MSNBC until its president, Phil Griffin, apologizes for a tweet from the network’s account that the “rightwing” would “hate” an upcoming commercial featuring a biracial family.
Breitbart News reports that Priebus has “banned all RNC staff from appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC.” He has also encouraged other Republican surrogates and officials to follow suit, according to a letter sent to Griffin.
The call for “corrective action” from the network comes after MSNBC tweeted a link about an upcoming Cheerios commercial featuring a biracial family with the comment that “maybe the rightwing will hate it.” But Priebus said the boycott is a reaction to more than just thattweet, pointing to the network’s tumultuous history of making offensive comments, including recent ones from hosts Martin Bashir and Melissa Harris-Perry.
UPDATE: The RNC’s strategy appeared to be effective. Communications director Sean Spicer tweeted that Griffin has not only apologized for the offensive tweet, but fired the employee behind it.
.@msnbc president phil griffin has issued an apology & acknowledged that they have fired the staffer responsible for offensive #tcot tweet
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) January 30, 2014
On the Cycle, Ari Melber read Griffin’s response to Priebus and the RNC on the air.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=hYdh6bc8aO4