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Who is Ronna McDaniel? RNC Chairwoman attacks Biden over Covid-19, slammed as 'self-hater who works for Trump'

McDaniel was ridiculed after she criticized Biden on 'his disastrous record responding to the coronavirus' and falsely accused him of planning to defund the police

As the election season is moving towards its finale in November, Republican and Democratic supporters and workers are going all out to support their respective presidential candidates. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was tweeting her support for POTUS Donald Trump and attacking Joe Biden on September 13.

In two subsequent tweets she wrote: "Joe Biden can’t run from his disastrous record responding to the coronavirus. The truth hurts, Joe!" and "When asked about redirecting funding from the police, Biden said, 'Yes, absolutely'." Both the tweets were quote-tweets for video clips posted by RNC Research handle. In the first, a news clip shows senior Biden campaign adviser Symone Sanders talking to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos about op-eds written by Biden and the second news clip features Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar talking to MSNBC about Biden’s campaign and one of the topics was police funds.

Who is Ronna McDaniel?

McDaniel graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English. She is the niece of former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the granddaughter of businessman and Republica politician George W Romney. McDaniel had worked in Michigan for her uncle’s 2012 campaign. She was elected Michigan's representative to RNC in 2014.

McDaniel was first elected RNC chair in January 2017 on Trump's recommendation, as per Fox News. She succeeded Reince Priebus, who had held the position since 2011 and left it to become Trump's first White House chief of staff. According to the report, POTUS, in 2018, had asked her to serve a second two-year term.

She criticized her uncle for writing an anti-Trump column. She had tweeted, "POTUS is attacked and obstructed by the MSM media and Democrats 24/7. For an incoming Republican freshman senator to attack @realdonaldtrump as their first act feeds into what the Democrats and media want and is disappointing and unproductive." This was in response to Trump's tweet: "Here we go with Mitt Romney, but so fast! Question will be, is he a Flake? I hope not. Would much prefer that Mitt focus on Border Security and so many other things where he can be helpful. I won big, and he didn’t. He should be happy for all Republicans. Be a TEAM player & WIN!"

ProPublica, in a report, alleged that big RNC contracts were awarded by McDaniel to companies closely connected to her. Contracts were allegedly given to her husband's company and companies that supported her 2015 run for the chairmanship of the Republican Party in Michigan.

After her recent tweets a lot of people had their opinions on her attacks on Biden. Author Don Winslow said, "@GOPChairwoman Ronna McDaniel is another unhappy, self hater who works for Trump and because she hates herself, she hates everything else except Trump and lies every day for her master. Dark days for this one when she is alone. Dark, dark Sarah Sanders level darkness." Another said, "This is the dumbest tweet of the year. Literally!! Congratulations Ronna." 

A user said, "Biden will not defund the police neither will he use the police to induce violence on the streets like President Trump." Another commented, "He didn’t. It was a manipulated video. Someone added 'police' into the video." One user claimed, "That's a lie..... pure and simple...Just because you put out altered videos does not mean it's true.... He actually wants to give more money to law enforcement."

As fact-checked by The New York Times, Biden had warned in an op-ed (for USA Today) in late January that the coronavirus cases were likely to grow. He criticized Trump’s previous suggestions to cut funding to health agencies, promoted international cooperation and vowed to “uphold science” and “harness expertise". Biden had stated similar views in interviews, town hall events and debates in February as well, but he did not suggest locking down cities or limiting social gatherings.

Biden has often been accused by Trump and his supporters that he is in favor of defunding the police. But according to a Reuters report in June this year, Andrew Bates, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign said, "As his criminal justice proposal made clear months ago, Vice President Biden does not believe that police should be defunded.” The report further stated, "Biden supports the urgent need for reform, including funding for public schools, summer programs, and mental health and substance abuse treatment separate from funding for policing, so that officers can focus on the job of policing." 

A July interview by Biden led to accusations that he did support defunding the police after an edited version was posted on Twitter by Republican Congressman Steve Scalise, as reported by BBC. The report states Trump referred to this when addressing the Republican Party convention, adding that if Biden became president "the radical left will defund police departments across America".

However, the video by Scalise was flagged by Twitter as manipulated because of the way the words "for police" were edited into the question about funding. In the unedited video, as reported by BBC, Ady Barkan says: "We can reduce the responsibilities assigned to the police and redirect some of the funding for police into social services, mental health counselling, and affordable housing." Biden begins talking about various types of police reforms he wants to see, when Barkan interrupts to ask: "But do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?" He doesn't mention the word "police" in the question, but Biden anyway responds: "Yes, absolutely." Scalise deleted his Twitter post with the video clip but said Biden was talking about police funding, as per BBC. The Biden campaign called the edited video a "deep fake", according to BBC.