MSNBC has officially found its new Senior Washington Correspondent in Eugene Daniels, a Politico alum who has appeared on the network multiple times. Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough welcomed the latest addition on “Morning Joe” on Monday.
“Thank you. You guys put me on TV all the time, so now they just stuck me there. So this is all your fault,” Daniels said of his full-time gig, to which Brzezinski responded, “We’ll take it.”
Daniels isn’t joking about being on TV often. In the past year alone, he appeared on MSNBC more than 100 times and has guest-hosted programs for the network, including “The Weekend.” He first joined the channel in 2021 and previously worked as a Senior Political Analyst.
As well as serving as MSNBC’s Washington correspondent, Daniels will also be a co-host of “The Weekend” on Saturdays and Sundays from 7 to 10 a.m. ET. He will host the show alongside Jonathan Capehart and another co-anchor whom Brzezinski said is “soon-to-be named.” As for the evening edition of the program, Ayman Mohyeldin will host that alongside two new hosts.
Daniels’ hiring is a big one as it marks the first correspondent hired during this new era of MSNBC. In November, Comcast announced it will be spinning off its cable networks, a decision that many have taken to mean that the MSNBC and NBC News teams will no longer work together. MSNBC is currently working to build out a Washington operation that will be independent from NBC News, an insider familiar with the matter told TheWrap. MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler is also in the process of hiring a head of talent, head of newsgathering, a Washington bureau chief and a head of content strategy, as well as a team of both domestic and international correspondents.
Prior to his latest MSNBC role, Daniels served as the Chief Playbook Correspondent and White House Correspondent for Politico. He also worked as a Political Reporter at Newsy and is currently the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
MSNBC is also planning to change up its programming around late April. After President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, “The Rachel Maddow Show” will return to Mondays, and Jen Psaki will anchor the weekday 9 p.m. hour from Tuesdays through Fridays. The current co-hosts of “The Weekend” — Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez — will then anchor the 7 p.m. ET hour from Tuesdays to Fridays as well as two hours on Mondays. Finally, Ali Velshi’s “Velshi” will expand to three hours on the weekends.
Though Joy Reid has left the network, Alex Wagner will remain at MSNBC as a senior political analyst.
Speaking of departures, MSNBC has decided to end its broadcasting operations in Miami. José Díaz-Balart, the former host of “José Díaz-Balart Reports” will remain the anchor of “Weekend Nightly News” on NBC. As for “The Katie Phang Show” host, Phang will remain at MSNBC as a legal correspondent.
