MSNBC President Rashida Jones participated in recruiting former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel earlier this month and McDaniel was offered a more lucrative contributor contract after she agreed to appear on MSNBC and not just NBC News, according to people familiar with the matter.

NBC News said on Tuesday that McDaniel — who repeatedly backed Donald Trump in raising questions about the validity of the 2020 election and helped organize a scheme involving alternate electors — would not appear on the network as a paid contributor after MSNBC’s anchors repeatedly attacked the hiring and called for the decision to be reversed.

But Jones had a one-on-one video call in early March after an executive at NBC News orchestrated the contact, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal discussions.

McDaniel was concerned she would face particularly harsh interviews, and the liberal-leaning viewers would not respond to her positively, according to people with knowledge of her concerns. Her original preference was just to appear on NBC News, the people said, and early talks with the network had centered around NBC appearances.