Charles David Todd (born April 8, 1972) is an American television journalist who was the 12th moderator of NBC's '' Meet the Press''. During his time at NBC News between 2007 and 2025, Todd also hosted ''Meet the Press Now'', its daily edition on NBC News Now, and served as the Chief Political Analyst for

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

as well. Before taking the helm of ''Meet the Press'', Todd was Chief White House correspondent for NBC as well as host of '' The Daily Rundown'' on

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

. He also served as NBC News' on-air political analyst for '' NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' and '' Today''. In June 2023, Todd announced that Kristen Welker would replace him as the moderator of ''Meet the Press'' in September 2023. She became the host on September 17, 2023. In January 2025, he announced his exit from

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

to pursue other endeavors.

Early life and education

Todd was born on April 8, 1972 in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, the son of Lois Cheri (''née'' Bernstein) and Stephen Randolph Todd. He is Jewish on his mother's side and was raised Jewish. He graduated from Miami Killian Senior High School in Kendall, an unincorporated suburban community in greater Miami. Todd attended

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

from 1990 to 1994. He declared a major in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and a minor in music but did not earn a degree.

Career

Political campaigns

Before entering the world of political reporting and analysis, Todd earned practical political experience on initiative campaigns in Florida and various national campaigns based in Washington, D.C. While in college, Todd worked for the 1992 presidential campaign of Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and later started working part-time at '' National Journals The Hotline.

''The Hotline''

From 1992 until March 12, 2007, Todd worked for National Journal's The Hotline, where he was

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

for six years. As part of his position, Todd also co-hosted, with John Mercurio, the webcast series ''Hotline TV'', consisting of a daily show lasting between three and seven minutes and a weekly show ranging between 20 and 30 minutes. He became a frequent guest on political discussion shows, such as '' Hardball with Chris Matthews'' and '' Inside Politics'' with Judy Woodruff.

NBC News

Tim Russert brought Todd to NBC from ''The Hotline'' in March 2007. He became the

political director at that time. In this role, Todd often provided on-air political analysis on political discussion shows, including ''

Morning Joe ''Morning Joe'' is an American morning news talk show, which airs weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time Zone, Eastern Time on the cable news channel MSNBC. It features former United States House of Representatives, US Repr ...

'', '' Hardball with Chris Matthews'', '' Meet the Press'', '' NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'', and '' The Rachel Maddow Show'' and

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

ged for MSNBC.com at "First Read". He also did a weekly Question and Answer ("Q&A") session with users at Newsvine. After Tim Russert's death in June 2008, Todd was a candidate to replace him as the host of NBC's '' Meet the Press'', but David Gregory was ultimately selected for the job. On December 18, 2008, NBC announced that Todd would succeed Gregory as NBC News Chief White House Correspondent, partnering with Savannah Guthrie on the news beat. He retained his title as NBC News Political Director and was also named Contributing Editor to ''Meet the Press''. Todd was a focus of an August 2008 ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' article paralleling Todd's rise to the rise of cable news networks in coverage of U.S. politics. The article noted the emergence of Todd's fans, deemed "Chuckolytes". On July 6, 2009, former

television personality Dan Abrams launched a website service, Mediaite, reporting on media figures. The site ranks all TV-based journalists in America by influence. Todd ranked, as of October 2009, right before Mike Wallace as number five. Todd rose to number two as of December 21, 2011, but fell to 90 as of January 9, 2013. On January 11, 2010, Todd became co-host, with Savannah Guthrie, of '' The Daily Rundown'' on MSNBC, airing weekday mornings from 09:00 to 10:00 ET. On August 14, 2014, NBC announced that Todd would take over as the host of '' Meet the Press'' beginning September 7, 2014. While remaining as NBC News political director, Todd left his role as chief White House correspondent as well as anchor of '' The Daily Rundown''. On July 23, 2015, MSNBC announced Todd would return to the network with a daily political show called ''MTP Daily'', which was airing weekdays at 17:00 ET. The show was an extension of ''Meet the Press''. Todd continued moderating ''Meet the Press'' on NBC. On January 22, 2017, Todd interviewed Kellyanne Conway on ''Meet the Press'', the day after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer accused the media of deliberately under-reporting the crowd size at President Trump's inaugural ceremony. In a response to Todd's question about the claims, Conway said:

"Our press secretary, Sean Spicer, gave alternative facts to that .e., Donald Trump's inaugural crowd size but the point remains that..."

Todd interrupted her, saying:

"Wait a minute. Alternative facts? ... Alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods."

On June 26 and 27, 2019, Todd, along with Jose Diaz-Balart, Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt, and Rachel Maddow, moderated the first pair of 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates. Todd's performance as a moderator, in which he ended up speaking more than all but three of the ten presidential candidates on the first debate, was widely panned. He was particularly criticized for asking candidates lengthy questions and then requesting them to respond "in one or two words". In a December 2019 interview with ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', Todd discussed his belief about how

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

overtook the media during the Trump administration. However, although Todd had addressed "alternative facts" being lies in January 2017, PressThink—a project of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

—took Todd to task for failing to address the issues as they unfolded. On June 4, 2023, at the end of ''Meet the Press'', Todd announced he would be stepping down from his role as the program moderator later in the year, handing that role to Kristen Welker, as he had hoped—saying that his three decades in the news business had deprived his family, and indicating that he was delighted with the circumstances of his departure, saying it was just the way he had hoped. On January 12, 2025, '' Semafor'' published a report, claiming Todd had been "quietly" meeting with organizers in Washington media, with plans to exit NBC "when his contract is up" sometime later in the year. On January 31, in a memo to staff, he announced his exit from the NBC. He wrote: "There's never a perfect time to leave a place that's been a professional home for so long, but I'm pretty excited about a few new projects that are on the cusp of going from 'pie in the sky' to 'near reality. So I'm grateful for the chance to get a jump start on my next chapter during this important moment."

Other professional ventures

Todd is an adjunct professor at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. He is the author of ''The Stranger: Barack Obama in the White House''. Published in 2014, the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' described the book as "richly sourced and deeply informed," while ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' called it "an even-handed, concise, and thorough account." Todd is also co-author, with Sheldon Gawiser, of ''How Barack Obama Won: A State-by-State Guide to the Historic 2008 Presidential Election'', published in 2009. Todd picks NFL football games for Tony Kornheiser on his podcast ''The Tony Kornheiser Show''. Each week, Todd is pitted against Reginald, a monkey, who also picks NFL games. Since September 2016, Todd has hosted the weekly Chuck Toddcast.

Personal life

Todd resides in

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati ...

with his wife, Kristian Denny Todd, and their two children. Kristian Todd is a communications professional and co-founder of Maverick Strategies and Mail, which provides direct-mail and consulting services for Democratic candidates and progressive causes. She was the spokesperson for the successful U.S. Senate campaign of

Jim Webb James Henry Webb Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is an American politician and author. He has served as a United States senator from Virginia, Secretary of the Navy, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, Counsel for the United States ...

in 2006. Although his wife is Christian, they are raising their two children in the Jewish faith. Todd is a congregant in the Reform congregation of Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia. Todd is an avid

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes, known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes, are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in NCAA Division I, Division I of the National Coll ...

football fan.

Awards and honors

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

(shared with several other NBC journalists)"Chuck Todd: Awards: News & Documentary Emmy Awards"

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

, retrieved June 5, 2023 ** 2009 Winner, Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast: ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for "Bailout Talks Collapse" ** 2009 Nominee, Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a News Magazine: NBC News for coverage of " Hurricane Gustav" ** 2010 Winner, Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast: ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,'' for "The Miracle on the Hudson" ** 2010 Nominee, Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story - Long Form, for NBC News Special: ''The Inauguration of Barack Obama'' ** 2011 Nominee, Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story - Long Form: NBC News for''Decision 2010'' ** 2011 Nominee, Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast: ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for "

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

: The Long Way Out" ** 2015 Nominee, Outstanding Interview: ''Meet the Press'' for "Former Vice President

Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...

Interview" ** 2018 Nominee, Outstanding Short Documentary: for ''Edith+Eddie'' * Honorary degrees: ** Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree (2013) from Marymount University in recognition of his work in journalism. ** Honorary Doctor of Public Service degree (2022) from

"SMPA National Council Members Dana Bash and Chuck Todd Received Honorary Degrees During 2022 Commencement,"
May 16, 2022, School of Media & Public Affairs, Columbian College of Arts & Sciences,

, retrieved June 5, 2023"Political Journalists Dana Bash, Chuck Todd to Receive Honorary Degrees,"
April 27, 2022, ''GW Today,'' Office of Communications and Marketing,

, retrieved June 5, 2023 ** honorary degree, Marist College"Biography: Chuck Todd"
October 1, 2020,

, retrieved June 5, 2023 * 2022 Foreign Press Award, The Association and the Club of Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States, retrieved June 5, 2023"Chuck Todd: Foreign Press Awardee 2022,"
The Association and the Club of Foreign Press Correspondents in the United States, retrieved June 5, 2023 * 2019 Hank Meyer Headliner Award, for journalists who create an inclusive community, Miami Coalition of Christians and Jews. Miami Coalition of Christians and Jews (MCCJ), May 13, 2019, ''SocialMiami,'' retrieved June 5, 2023 * Named "The Most Powerful Journalist in Washington" by '' GQ'' as part of the magazine's "50 Most Powerful People in Washington" list.

Published works

*Todd, Chuck and Sheldon Gawiser (2009). ''How Barack Obama Won.'' *

References

External links

Chuck Todd bio on MSNBC
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Todd, Chuck 1972 births Living people American political journalists American television news anchors American television reporters and correspondents News & Documentary Emmy Award winners Jewish American journalists MSNBC people NBC News people 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male journalists Johns Hopkins University faculty Columbian College of Arts and Sciences alumni Writers from Miami Journalists from Miami Journalists from Arlington County, Virginia Florida Democrats American Reform Jews 21st-century American male writers