Latest news with #Capehart
New York Post
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart quits paper after owner Jeff Bezos overhauls op-ed section: report
Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart has accepted a buyout from the paper, becoming the latest high-profile departure amid sweeping editorial changes implemented under owner Jeff Bezos. Capehart, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer known for his outspoken criticism of President Trump, had been with the Post since 2007. His exit was first reported by Axios on Monday. Capehart's final column for the Post, published in May, featured a conversation with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on 'countering' the president. Advertisement 4 Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart has reportedly accepted a buyout from the paper, becoming the latest high-profile departure amid sweeping editorial changes. Getty Images for MVAAFF That same month, Capehart resigned from the newspaper's editorial board over a dispute with a white colleague about a piece that anazlyed Georgia's voting laws and their alleged racial implications. Capehart had previously referred to Trump as 'a cancer on the presidency and American society' and compared a rally held by Trump at Madison Square Garden to a Nazi rally at the same venue in 1939. The terms of his buyout were not disclosed. Advertisement Representatives for the Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Capehart will continue co-hosting MSNBC's 'The Weekend' and remain a panelist on PBS's 'NewsHour.' The buyout follows comments made by Washington Post CEO Will Lewis, who in recent weeks urged employees who do not 'feel aligned' with the company's editorial direction to resign. Advertisement 4 The newspaper's billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has shifted the publication's editorial direction. REUTERS His departure adds to a string of exits at the paper over the Beltway broadsheet's shift to the right. In February, Bezos ordered the Post's opinion section to focus on 'personal liberties and free markets.' The directive led to the resignation of Opinion Editor David Shipley, followed by the departure of multiple other opinion writers, including longtime columnist Ruth Marcus. Last month, Adam O'Neal, formerly of The Economist and The Dispatch, was named opinion editor. Advertisement 4 In May, Capehart quit the newspaper's editorial board after a dispute with a colleague over Georgia's voting laws. Getty Images Weeks later, popular columnist Joe Davidson announced he was leaving after one of his columns was killed for being 'too opinionated.' Davidson criticized the paper's ownership, stating that 'Bezos's policies and activities have projected the image of a Donald Trump supplicant.' The paper faced subscriber backlash after Bezos blocked a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris for president shortly before the election. Approximately 250,000 subscribers canceled their subscriptions. 4 The Washington Post has undergone significant change in the last year, including the departure of big-name reporters. AFP via Getty Images In January, several top reporters and editors — including Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, Josh Dawsey and Tyler Pager — left the Post for rival outlets such as The Atlantic and the New York Times. Managing editor Matea Gold joined the Times' Washington bureau in late 2024. At the same time, the Post laid off 4% of its business-side staff due to profitability concerns. Earlier this year, more than 400 staff members signed an internal petition expressing concern over editorial independence and management decisions.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart claims 'Obama people' are crowding out 'next generation' of Democratic Party leaders
MSNBC anchor Jonathan Capehart argued that former President Barack Obama's influence over the Democratic Party has sometimes been stifling for a younger generation of leaders who seek to shape the future of the party. "The Obama people come in, they're the new blood, and now people are starting to complain, 'Oh my God, the Obama people, they're running everything.' Some of the criticism, I think, is valid," Capehart said, referencing complaints that Obama-era staffers had of former President Bill Clinton's advisors dominating party politics. Despite Obama's entrance into national politics coming almost 20 years ago, his influence on the Democratic Party, especially through his former campaign staffers and advisors, only seems to have grown. Obama campaign alums, including Mitch Stewart and Rufus Gifford, also worked on former President Biden's campaign, according to NBC News. Other Obama campaign alums helped lead former Vice President Kamala Harris' failed presidential bid. Democratic Strategists Question Influence Of Obama-era Campaign Operatives In Party's Future Capehart argued the persistent influence of Obama alums throughout the campaign world has also created an arrogance among the Obama "class" of political advisors. "Sometimes you get a sense that they think they know everything, they run the world, and in some cases you can understand it because, well, they did win two presidential elections," the MSNBC anchor said of Obama's staffers. Read On The Fox News App Capehart called on the Obama generation to make way for the "next generation" in Democratic Party politics. Biden's Chief Of Staff Scolded Obama Campaign Architect For Calling Biden's Age An Issue, Book Reveals "At a certain point, that class of folks has to start listening to the next generation coming up because they have ideas, they have ways of reaching out to the voters, to men, to the Obama coalition that they just don't have. They don't have the feel for it because they're not from that generation," he said. Capehart said Obama has intentionally made himself "scarce" because some Democrats expect that he will "save the day." "I think that's one of the primary reasons why I think President Obama has been scarce, is that everyone's looking for him to save the day. And what they keep saying is, 'No, no, no, no, it's not about us. It's about you.' And it seems like the party can't seem to come to grips with that and deal with that," Capehart said. Fox News' Hanna Panreck contributed to this report. Original article source: MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart claims 'Obama people' are crowding out 'next generation' of Democratic Party leaders
New York Post
28-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
MSNBC's Jonathan Capehart claims ‘Obama people' are crowding out ‘next generation' of Dem leaders: ‘Think they know everything'
MSNBC anchor Jonathan Capehart argued that former President Barack Obama's influence over the Democratic Party has sometimes been stifling for a younger generation of leaders who seek to shape the future of the party. 'The Obama people come in, they're the new blood, and now people are starting to complain, 'Oh my God, the Obama people, they're running everything.' Some of the criticism, I think, is valid,' Capehart said, referencing complaints that Obama-era staffers had of former President Bill Clinton's advisors dominating party politics. Despite Obama's entrance into national politics coming almost 20 years ago, his influence on the Democratic Party, especially through his former campaign staffers and advisors, only seems to have grown. Obama campaign alums, including Mitch Stewart and Rufus Gifford, also worked on former President Biden's campaign, according to NBC News. Other Obama campaign alums helped lead former Vice President Kamala Harris' failed presidential bid. Capehart argued the persistent influence of Obama alums throughout the campaign world has also created an arrogance among the Obama 'class' of political advisors. MSNBC anchor Jonathan Capehart said that former President Barack Obama's influence over the Democratic Party has been affecting the younger generation of Democrats, who want to revolutionize the party's future. NBC/NBC NewsWire 'Sometimes you get a sense that they think they know everything, they run the world, and in some cases you can understand it because, well, they did win two presidential elections,' the MSNBC anchor said of Obama's staffers. Capehart called on the Obama generation to make way for the 'next generation' in Democratic Party politics. 'At a certain point, that class of folks has to start listening to the next generation coming up because they have ideas, they have ways of reaching out to the voters, to men, to the Obama coalition that they just don't have. They don't have the feel for it because they're not from that generation,' he said. Capehart said, 'The Obama people come in, they're the new blood, and now people are starting to complain, 'Oh my God, the Obama people, they're running everything.' Some of the criticism, I think, is valid.' AFP via Getty Images Capehart said Obama has intentionally made himself 'scarce' because some Democrats expect that he will 'save the day.' 'I think that's one of the primary reasons why I think President Obama has been scarce, is that everyone's looking for him to save the day. And what they keep saying is, 'No, no, no, no, it's not about us. It's about you.' And it seems like the party can't seem to come to grips with that and deal with that,' Capehart said. Fox News' Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MSNBC Host Nails The 1 Thing 'Obama People' Must Do In 2025
MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart on Tuesday called on former President Barack Obama's camp to help the Democratic Party carve a path forward by turning their attention to the 'next generation' of voters. Capehart, in an appearance on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' reflected on the earlier era of the Clinton family 'running' everything and calls for 'new blood' in the party — only for the same cycle of criticism to repeat with Obama. 'Now people are starting to complain, 'Oh my God, the Obama people, they're running everything.' Some of the criticism, I think, is valid,' he said. 'Sometimes you get a sense that they think they know everything, they run the world and, in some cases, you can understand it because, well, they did win two presidential elections.' He continued, 'But at a certain point, that class of folks has to start listening to the next generation coming up because they have ideas, they have ways of reaching out to the voters, to men, to the Obama coalition that they just don't have — they don't have the feel for it because they're not from that generation.' Moments earlier, MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire turned to an NBC News report detailing how the so-called Obama 'coalition' shifted toward President Donald Trump last year. While Obama continues to be a 'force' in the party, NBC News reported, his 'luster was showing signs of fading' in the fall as his 2008 victory is set to turn 20 years old with the arrival of the 2028 presidential election. Capehart noted that the 'Obama luster' wasn't enough for the party in the 2010 and 2014 midterms, failing to get enough people to the polls to give him the majority he needed to govern during his presidency. He added that by the time the former president and then-first lady Michelle Obama left the White House, they were 'very clear' with their supporters that they had done 'everything' they could during their eight years in Washington. ″[They advised Americans] it is now on you, the number one job is citizen,'' Capehart said. He speculated that one of the primary reasons the former president has been 'scarce' in the public sphere lately is that everyone was 'looking for him to save the day.' 'And what they keep saying is, 'No, no, no, it's not about us. It's about you.' And it seems like the party can't seem to come to grips with that and deal with that,' he said. H/T: Mediaite 'Exactly Why We're Not Winning': Democratic Strategist Nails 1 Of Party's Biggest Problems Former Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel Of New York Dies At Age 94 The 'Democratic Party's Own Donald Trump' Is Getting Another Chance
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capeheart quits editorial board over dispute with white colleague: ‘Robbing me of my humanity'
A black Washington Post opinion writer said he quit the newspaper's editorial board over a dispute with a white colleague about a piece concerning Georgia's voting laws that he didn't agree with — accusing her of 'robbing me of my humanity,' according to a report. Jonathan Capehart, who was the only African American member of the editorial board when he quit in 2023, writes in a new book titled 'Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man's Search for Home,' that he stepped down over a dispute with another opinion editor, Karen Tumulty, the news site Semafor reported. In his book, Capehart, who remains a columnist at the paper, writes that he clashed with Tumulty over an editorial which took issue with then-President Joe Biden's criticism of a 2021 Georgia voting law. Biden described the law as 'Jim Crow 2.0' — a characterization that the Washington Post editorial board deemed to be 'hyperbolic.' That didn't sit well with Capehart, who agreed with Biden's view of the law and was upset that the editorial may make it appear as if he supported the board's position that it was 'hyperbolic,' according to Semafor. According to the book, Capehart was incensed when Tumulty later did not apologize to him for publishing it. He wrote that he felt additionally put off when Tumulty said Biden's choice of words was insulting to people who had lived through racial segregation in the South. 'Tumulty took an incident where I felt she ignored and compounded the insult by robbing me of my humanity,' he wrote in the book, which was published last week. 'She either couldn't or wouldn't see that I was black, that I came to the conversation with knowledge and history she could never have, that my worldview, albeit different from hers, was equally valid.' Capehart left the editorial board after complaining about the incident to human resources and other senior figures at the paper, Semafor reported. Capehart's frustrations were notable enough that after the piece was published, opinion editor David Shipley was asked to meet privately with the Rev. Al Sharpton to discuss the incident and alleged shortcomings in the paper's opinion coverage, Semafor reported. The claims made by Capehart in his new book have also reportedly rankled Washington Post staffers, according to Semafor. Capehart's description of the incident in his book as well as a recent discussion that he held with former Biden administration official Susan Rice at a local Washington, DC, bookstore last week has been the subject of internal recriminations at the newspaper in recent days, Semafor reported. According to two Washington Post staffers, staff have complained privately that the book publicly pitted current colleagues against each other and appeared to run afoul of the Post's editorial guidelines around collegiality, as well as rules that restrict staff from publicly disclosing internal editorial conversations. The Post has sought comment from the Washington Post, Tumulty and Capehart. In a statement to Semafor, Tumulty noted that the paper had repeatedly published opinion pieces criticizing Georgia's 2021 voting laws limiting ballot access, but said she would not comment further on the book or the Post's editorial processes. 'I have a very different recognition of the events and conversations that are described in this book, but out of respect for the longstanding principle that Washington Post editorial board deliberations are confidential I am not going to say anything further,' Tumulty told Semafor. Some current and former staff told Semafor that they felt Capehart's decision to go after Tumulty in a book and on his book tour over an editorial disagreement, as well as the actual description of the incident, was unfair to her. 'Ed board members, current and former, are honor bound not to discuss specific deliberations publicly,' former deputy opinion editor Chuck Lane said in a text to Semafor. 'I can only say that Karen took an unsought leadership role when the paper needed her, and performed it superbly and 100 percent honorably, despite extraordinary health challenges — for which I admire her greatly.' The Washington Post editorial board has undergone considerable upheaval in the last nine months. Just before the Nov. 5 presidential election, billionaire owner Jeff Bezos blocked the editorial board from endorsing the Democratic nominee, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Earlier this year, Bezos overhauled the opinion section so that it would promote 'personal liberties' and 'free markets' — a move that prompted the resignation of Shipley.
