White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of one of the most powerful clubs in America.

Woman to Lead TODAY Show for the First Time, Libby Leist Tapped to Become the Shows Executive Producer

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Don Nash and his wife at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

 

Libby Leist, the senior producer for NBC’s The TODAY Show, will be moving into her new role as executive producer for the show’s 7am and 8am hours according to a statement by NBC Chairman Andy Lack on Wednesday, January 17th. Libby will be replacing 23-year TODAY veteran Don Nash, a longtime producer for Matt Lauer, who has produced The TODAY Show since 2012. Nash will be retiring to spend more time with his family.

According to Lack, “Libby brings tremendous talent and experience to this role, having served as senior producer of the 7am hour for the last 5 years. She has led the show’s political coverage and special events, including candidate town halls and TODAY’s historic broadcast from inside the White House. Libby has spent her career at NBC News, starting as a desk assistant in DC in 2001, and later rising to become Andrea Mitchell’s State Department producer – a role for which she traveled the world – and then several senior producer roles in the bureau, including MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown and Capitol Hill producer.”

The move follows NBC’s decision to make Hoda Kotb a permanent anchor on the show alongside Savannah Guthrie this January, making this the first time The TODAY Show has an all-female duo.

Read Andy Lack’s full statement below:

The TODAY show couldn’t be in a stronger position. Savannah and Hoda have seamlessly taken their seats and we’re off to a fantastic start in 2018. This is a tribute to them and the whole team at TODAY.

With this change in anchors, and having rethought some of his priorities, Don Nash has decided to step away from his Executive Producer role at TODAY.

I cannot thank Don enough for everything he contributed in nearly 30 years at TODAY – almost half of the show’s 66-year history. He led the TODAY team through many transitions and got the show back to number one. He leaves with every aspect of the show on top and with a legacy he should be proud of.  As you all know so well, among many other skills Don is one of the best live control room producers in the business. We’ve offered him a number of roles within NBC News and NBCUniversal, and we hope he’ll stay in the family.

Don leaves a big hole at TODAY, but we are so fortunate to have extraordinary producers who can step up.

We are pleased to announce that Libby Leist is being promoted to EP of TODAY’s 7am and 8am hours. Libby brings tremendous talent and experience to this role, having served as senior producer of the 7am hour for the last 5 years. She has led the show’s political coverage and special events, including candidate town halls and TODAY’s historic broadcast from inside the White House. Libby has spent her career at NBC News, starting as a desk assistant in DC in 2001, and later rising to become Andrea Mitchell’s State Department producer – a role for which she traveled the world – and then several senior producer roles in the bureau, including MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown and Capitol Hill producer.

Libby will report to Noah, and will work closely with Tom Mazzarelli who will continue in his pivotal role for the show; as well as with Jackie Levin, EP of the 9am, Tammy Filler, EP of the 10am and Matt Carluccio, EP of weekends.

Please join me in wishing Don every success in his next endeavor and congratulating Libby on her promotion.

Andy

Rahm Resigns on Friday

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White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel will resign tomorrow according to MSNBC.

Savannah Guthrie spoke on Andrea Mitchel Reports today and will be confirmed on Friday during a press conference from Robert Gibbs. Of course, today Gibbs refused to speculate as to what the nature of the press conference will cover, but the writing has been on the wall all week.

Politico’s speculated on Rahm’s exit and what could happen next, namely that Pete Rouse could (i.e. will) assume the role

A Emanuel-to-Rouse [sic] swap is less notable for the obvious shift in personalities than it is for the way Rouse would appear to be a better fit for the post-legislative focus of the White House after the Nov. 2 midterms.

In the short term, Emanuel’s absence won’t change the dynamic in the West Wing, where he is a fixture in all major policy discussions. Congress will have finished its business by Thursday or Friday and won’t be in session for the next five weeks, when Obama and fellow Democrats, including those in the White House, will be consumed by the midterms.

While the speculation can now officially run wild for the next 24 hours, we’ll wait for President Obama’s “personal remarks,” per Gibbs, tomorrow.

Grove Attacks WH Press Corps: The View from Michael’s

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Former Washingtonian and Washington Post reporter Lloyd Grove has picked up the attack against White House correspondents launched by Ana Marie Cox last year.  Ana Marie, did you spend anytime with Lloyd at Michael’s when you visited your new GQ editors in NYC? Grove’s Daily Beast blog recently harrumphed against the hardworking, hard tweeting members of the most exclusive club in Washington journalism – the ones who report to work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

While I enjoy Michael’s like the next media maven, what’s so wrong with covering the leader of the free world 30 feet from his office and home? Grove’s complaint about Robert Gibbs tweeting reminds of when we began putting Ross Perot and President Bush and a former governor by the name of Bill Clinton on Larry King Live in 1992.  Our newsroom colleagues lamented the end of journalism, but social media didn’t just start on the Internet; interactivity has always been an important part of journalism.

Ask Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s communications director, how much his press shop likes responding to the five reporters who call with follows on each White House reporters’ tweet.  Take a quick look at the stories and interviews done by NBC’s Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie as well as ABC’s Jake Tapper; you want them to pull back and tweet from Café Milano?

Tell WHC Insider what you think after reading Lloyd Grove’s column.

Air Force One: Riding the "Bird" with President Obama and Jon Meacham

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Obama, Meacham, Gibbs, Haddad in

It is always different; the way a White House informs you that you have the President of the United States for an interview. Sometimes it’s a call to warn an important call is coming, and you better agree to the conditions. Often it is four to six people calling to claim credit for making the interview happen. But, as in most things with Obama, this is a drama free process: just an email asking where you can be reached. This email is from Dan Pfeiffer, deputy communications director of the Obama White House, and the cool and collected center of the daily press hub since the beginning of the campaign.

Newsweek, along with everyone else, had a request in to the White House to get more of President Obama’s words on the record. The interview is for Jon Meacham, named Newsweek editor at 29, now just 40. Meacham is a poet-historian and, like Obama, a bestselling author. Pfeiffer’s email advises that we will get our interview and it will be on Air Force One. Despite no video or audio, we were pleased and I reply, “We are in.” There was a quick handover to the operations folks for details of the trip to Phoenix for the President’s commencement address at Arizona State University.

Meacham and AF OneI ask Meacham if he’s ever been on Air Force One, and he said only at the Reagan Library. My only time was during my stint running MSNBC’s 2004 election coverage when 30 Rock was transformed into “Democracy Plaza,” — a piece of an Air Force One plane was part of the plaza-wide exhibition.

Meacham and I meet up with Newsweek star photographer Khue Bui, a White House press corps veteran and delightful campaign trail mate, who will round out the Newsweek Air Force One team. We arrive at Andrews Air Force Base looking like the desk jockeys we are; editors and producers aren’t usually allowed out of their bureaus.

We watch as the entire White House traveling press corps arrives for a security check; however, they’ll be traveling on the press charter plane departing ahead of Air Force One.

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