CNN is redeploying some of its Washington-based correspondents in preparation for the new Barack Obama administration and the incoming 111th Congress.
“During the election, CNN’s political reporters established themselves as the class of television news, both cable and broadcast,” David Bohrman, CNN’s senior vice president and D.C. bureau chief, said in a prepared statement. “Now we’re positioning them in key roles that will ensure the most thorough and informative coverage as President Obama and Congress tackle the thorniest problems America has faced in our lifetimes.”
The changes follow the announcement that CNN’s lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer will remain with the network through the next presidential election cycle and chief national correspondent John King will anchor a four-hour programming block on Sundays starting in January.
Ed Henry, who has provided comprehensive coverage of the Obama transition, becomes senior White House correspondent after covering the past two years of the George W. Bush White House and spending two years as CNN’s congressional correspondent.
Suzanne Malveaux, who covered the Obama presidential campaign and reported a two-hour documentary on the president-elect, returns to the White House. She will also serve as a primary substitute anchor for The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.Boston bureau chief and correspondent Dan Lothian, who reported extensively from the campaign trail in both 2004 and 2008, will become a White House correspondent as well.
Dana Bash, who broke numerous exclusives while covering the Republican primaries and the McCain campaign, was named senior congressional correspondent. Bash has covered Congress for nearly a decade and was honored with the prestigious Dirksen Award in 2002. She will be joined on Capitol Hill by Brianna Keilar, who has served as a general assignment correspondent for the network for nearly three years and covered Capitol Hill and the White House during the election campaign.
Jessica Yellin, one of the standouts of CNN’s presidential campaign coverage, becomes national political correspondent. In addition to The Situation Room, Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull and John King’s Sunday block, Yellin will file daily reports for CNN’s prime-time programming analyzing the most important stories on politics, policy and culture.
Jill Dougherty was named foreign affairs correspondent. Dougherty,who covered the Clinton White House for CNN and then served as Moscow bureau chief and correspondent and managing editor for Asia/Pacific based in Hong Kong, will track Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton’s stewardship of American foreign policy.
Correspondent Chris Lawrence, a veteran of the Navy Reserve who has spent four years as a general assignment correspondent in CNN’s Chicago and Los Angeles bureaus, becomes a Pentagon correspondent.
Zain Verjee becomes news anchor for The Situation Room and will also file special reports for the program. While serving as CNN’s State Department correspondent for the past two years, Verjee traveled with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to more than a dozen countries, including Israel, Libya, Russia and South Korea. She also covered the violent conflicts in Kenya, her native country.
Elaine Quijanoshifts from the White House to general assignment correspondent to cover other Beltway issues while continuing to cover the White House. She will be joined byKate Bolduan,who has been reporting for the network for months and officiallymoves from CNN’s Newsource affiliate service.
