CBS News Staff 'Embarrassed' After Network Hired Trump's Former Chief of Staff for GOP 'Access'

In the 14 months since former President Donald Trump left the White House, a number of his former staffers have taken high-profile media jobs. Trump's fourth and final White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, took a contributor job at the conservative Fox News network, while his former Economic Council director—Larry Kudlow—took a hosting job at Fox Business. In 2020, Trump's first White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, accepted a hosting job at far-right disinformation outlet, Newsmax.

But while most of these job offers have come from conservative media, more reputable outlets are facing backlash for bringing on defenders of a man who told more than 30 thousand lies over the course of his time in the White House.

The latest network undergoing this is CBS News, which recently announced the hiring of Trump's former chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, much to the chagrin of its staff.

In defending the hire, CBS co-president Neeraj Khemlani said to employees:

“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.”

A recent Washington Post report highlighted the frustration of CBS employees, who relayed the comments of an unnamed employee who said:

“I know everyone I talked to today was embarrassed about the hiring."

It's not hard to see why. As chief of staff, Mulvaney repeatedly echoed then-President Trump's dismissal of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has gone on to kill nearly a million Americans. Mulvaney even said that coverage about the severity of the pandemic was a media conspiracy against Trump.

People aren't surprised at the employees' outrage, and in fact, they shared it.

Others rejected Khemlani's prediction that Republicans would retake Congress, and they called on Democrats not to sit out in 2022.

It's unclear if Mulvaney's job offer is now in jeopardy.