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Maddow mocks RNC chair for suggestion MSNBC played a role in election losses

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday night mocked RNC chairman Reince Priebus’s suggestion that her network contributed to the party’s failures in the 2012 election.

Maddow told viewers the official Republican Party commission “autopsy” report exploring how they “did so badly and what is wrong with them as a party” was finished and would be released on March 18. She then played a clip of Priebus guest appearance on the Hugh Hewitt Show this week as he shared a preview of the report's findings.

“You're going to see the skeleton of this plan start to role out in the next few weeks," Priebus said. "And if you look real hard, you’ll see that I’ve made comments similar to what I just told you on this issue in the press over the last couple weeks, and that controlling the debate process, getting involved in moderators and networks and all of these other issues, so that we don’t have chaos.”

“We just can't have MSNBC hosting a debate at the Reagan Library only to have their network comment, you know, make the commentary afterwards for three hours after the debate of the Republican Party,” he said of the Sept. 7, 2011 debate sponsored by NBC News and POLITICO. “I mean, it's ridiculous."

After the clip aired, Maddow replied, "Do you think they know that MSNBC would talk about what happened at Republican debate, even if it happened on another network?"

“We were the reason you guys lost? We're what needs to be fixed in the Republican Party? Seriously? I find this to be excellent news," she added.