Chuck Todd announced on Sunday that he will step down this year after nine years hosting the public affairs talk show. Kristen Welker, NBC News’ co-chief White House correspondent, will succeed him.
“When I took over ‘Meet the Press,’ it was a Sunday show that had a lot of people questioning whether it still could have a place in the modern media space,” Todd added. “Well, I think we’ve answered that question and then some.” Welker joins the ranks of hosts that included Tim Russert, who presided over the show from 1991 until his death in 2008. She is the second woman — following its inaugural host, Martha Rountree — and the first Black journalist to moderate “Meet the Press.”
In one of the most memorable interviews of the early Trump era, Todd asked Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump’s top aides, why then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer used his first appearance in the briefing room to dispute reports about the crowd size at the inauguration. Conway replied that Spicer was
“I’ve had the privilege of working with her from essentially her first day, and let me just say she’s the right person in the right moment,” he said.