Former White House senior advisor David Axelrod joins a flurry of erstwhile politicos making the leap to television news punditry. Axelrod, who was a key strategist for President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, joins NBC News and MSNBC as a senior political analyst.
The announcement came Tuesday from NBC News and follows last week’s news that 2012 Republican presidential aspirant Herman Cain has joined Fox News Channel. The network also recently hired former Republican Senator Scott Brown while parting ways with Dick Morris and Sarah Palin at the conclusion of her three-year contract.
STORY: Fox News Adds Hermain Cain to Contributor Roster
Axelrod has been a frequent guest on NBC News and MSNBC as well as other television news program. And viewers should expect to see him “frequently” across the news division's various platforms and broadcasts, according a news release announcing the appointment. Axelrod joins former strategist Steve Schmidt – an advisor during the 2008 presidential campaign of John McCain (and immortalized by Woody Harrelson in HBO’s Game Change) – in addition to former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele and former Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell at NBC News.
Meanwhile, new CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker recently purged several political pundits, including long-time contributors James Carville and Mary Matalin and Bill Bennett, Maria Cardona and Erick Erickson, a conservative columnist and blogger for Red State.
