Another veteran Washington Post reporter left Jeff Bezos’ broadsheet on Tuesday — joining an exodus of talent after management pushed for an endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris.
CNN announced Tuesday that Philip Rucker, a Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime national editor at the Washington Post, is joining the network as senior vice president of editorial strategy and news.
Rucker’s departure follows a wave of resignations in recent weeks amid growing dissatisfaction with Washington Post leadership.
Rucker spent two decades at the WaPo, earning a reputation as one of the most respected chroniclers of President Trump’s first term.
He co-authored two best-selling books about his presidency.
A Washington Post spokesperson confirmed Rucker’s departure, telling the New York Post that the publication wishes him the best.
In his new position at CNN, Rucker will play a key role in shaping the network’s coverage of the second Trump administration.
He will oversee political newsgathering efforts and help integrate that reporting across CNN’s various platforms, including its digital media.
“I look forward to collaborating with the world-class journalists at CNN to help shape a new era of digital transformation,” Rucker said in a statement.
His departure comes after more than 400 Washington Post employees sent a letter to Bezos asking him to step in to run the paper.
Bezos, the Amazon founder who bought the venerable Beltway newspaper in 2013, and Will Lewis, its CEO and publisher, blocked the editorial board from publishing an endorsement of Harris just weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
The move sparked widespread outrage among readers, with a reported 250,000 of them canceling their subscriptions in response.
The decision also prompted several high-profile staffers to leave, including Jennifer Rubin, the veteran opinion columnist and outspoken Trump critic, who announced last week that she would join a startup newsletter founded by the former official. Obama, Norm Eisen.
Several other journalists left the newsroom. In the weeks that followed, a number of the paper’s top reporters and editors, including Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey, left.
Parker and Michael Scherer, both senior political reporters, left the Washington Post to join The Atlantic, the left-leaning publication owned by billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs.
Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, resigned after the newspaper refused to publish her cartoon mocking Bezos and other tech moguls kneeling before Trump.
She criticized the decision as harmful to the freedom of the press.
Rucker will be based in CNN’s Washington bureau and will begin his role on February 10.
Rucker’s hiring comes at a pivotal time for CNN.
During Trump’s first presidency, the network took a confrontational stance in its coverage, which became a defining element of its approach to political reporting.
Under the leadership of network chief Mark Thompson, CNN is reportedly seeking a more balanced tone.
A sign of change came last week when it was reported that Thompson wanted to move anti-Trump anchor Jim Acosta to the graveyard shift.
The Post has sought comment from CNN.
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