NEW YORK -- Jake Tapper is leaving the White House beat at ABC News to become CNN's chief Washington correspondent and anchor of a one-hour weekday news program.
NEW YORK -- Jake Tapper is leaving the White House beat at ABC
News to become CNN's chief Washington correspondent and anchor of a
one-hour weekday news program.
CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Scoggins said Thursday that Tapper's show would take an hour from the three-hour Situation Room
newscast, which Wolf Blitzer currently hosts from 4 to 7 p.m. Eastern
time on weekdays. It hasn't been determined when Tapper's show will
start.
Tapper has been at ABC since 2003, most recently as its senior White House correspondent and author of the Political Punch blog. He's also author of The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, about the war in Afghanistan.
He's been ABC's primary substitute for the Sunday This Week
talk show. But he was twice passed over for the top job, once when
Christiane Amanpour replaced George Stephanopoulos and again when
Stephanopoulos returned to replace Amanpour earlier this year.
Tapper
worked at Salon.com before joining ABC, but he also had experience at
CNN a decade ago, co-hosting a weekend show featuring young journalists
talking about politics and pop culture.He'll be joining CNN at a time of
change, with former NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker starting in January
as head of the network.
Tapper's exit triggered changes at ABC
News. Veteran Washington hand Jonathan Karl will be ABC's new chief
Washington correspondent, ABC News President Ben Sherwood said.Martha
Raddatz's role will expand as the new chief global affairs
correspondent.
Raddatz, who won praise this fall as moderator of
the vice presidential debate, will become Stephanopoulos' chief
substitute on Sunday mornings.
Associated Press