Longtime NBC News political reporter Chuck Todd is leaving the network after 18 years, he announced on his podcast Friday morning.
“So look, I’m leaving a bit earlier than we had all originally planned, but there’s a reason for it,” Todd said on his “Chuck Toddcast,” adding that he had exciting projects that were “near reality” and would focus on the future of media, “local in particular.”
In his 18 years at NBC, Todd has held various positions, including political director, and eventually helming NBC’s Sunday flagship show “Meet the Press” from late 2014 until 2023.
Todd’s departure comes less than two weeks into Donald Trump’s second term in the White House. The president has routinely mocked the journalist, who at times was critical in his coverage of Trump. Trump deemed him “sleepy-eyed Chuck Todd.”
More recently, Todd got into an on-air spat with the network over its hiring of former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, saying she had deep credibility issues.
Todd said he will bring his podcast with him to his next venture after a brief hiatus. “I do plan to continue to share my reporting and my perspective, and to cover politics the way I’ve been covering it,” Todd said.
NBC News and MSNBC have undergone recent leadership changes, with Comcast recently announcing a plan to house some of NBCUniversal’s cable networks, including MSNBC, in a $7 billion spinoff.
Todd did not reference any of these changes when announcing his departure. Instead, he said it was because the “media has a lot of work to do to win back the trust” of the public, and “national media isn’t the place that’s going to be able to do it.”
Local media, Todd said, is what gave national media its initial credibility, and it’s local news that is best suited to fix the problem, especially given national news’ focus on web traffic.
Todd said his priorities for, and commitment to, political journalism remain the same.
“Bottom line here is we can’t stick our heads in the sand, and we can’t be propagandists, y’know we gotta continue to call ‘em like we see ‘em. We gotta continue to cover politics as it is, not as we wish it were,” he said.
