CNN’s White House Correspondent John Harwood to Exit amid Network Turmoil

CNN’s White House correspondent John Harwood’s last day at the network will be Friday, he announced in a Twitter post.

“Today’s my last day at CNN,” Harwood said. “Proud of the work thanks to my colleagues i’ve been lucky to serve the best in American media — St. Petersburg Times, WSJ, NYT, the NBC family, CNN.”

“Look forward to figuring out what’s next,” Hardwood added, which suggests he was let go by CNN’s new management during its restructuring.

Harwood joined CNN in 2020 after working for CNBC from 2006 to 2019, CNN’s bio of the ex-White House correspondent said. Harwood has reported on the last nine presidential cycles. During former President Obama’s rise in 2008, he first broke the news that failed presidential candidate John McCain had chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate.

CNN issued a short statement about Harwood’s exit. “We appreciate John’s work covering the White House, and we wish him all the best.”

Harwood’s departure from CNN follows Brian Stelter’s exit from the network on August 18. CNN could have kept Stelter as an employee but apparently decided against retaining his services. CNN could have also kept his show while parting ways with Stelter, but instead decided to cancel it. Stelter’s show hit the lowest episode rating in June since September 2019.

In June, Breitbart News reported CNN’s new chief Chris Licht was “ready to boot on-air personalities who have destroyed the brand by becoming irredeemable partisan hacks,” which means both Harwood and Stelter must have been on the hot seat after fresh rebranding tactics were put forward.

The upheaval at the network comes after the former president of CNN, Jeff Zucker, left CNN in February upon being questioned about his relationship with longtime CNN executive Allison Gollust as part of the broader Andrew Cuomo investigation. The probe revealed former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo had aided his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, through a sexual harassment scandal.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.