Jonathan Lemire To Host MSNBC’S ‘Way Too Early’, Join Politico

Jonathan Lemire, who has been covering the White House for the Associated Press, will be the new host of MSNBC’s Way Too Early.

Lemire also will be joining Politico as its White House bureau chief, starting in November.

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Lemire, who has been an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, succeeds Kasie Hunt at Way Too Early and later joined CNN.

Lemire covered Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s administrations for the AP, and also is writing a book, The Big Lie: Election Chaos, Political Opportunism and the State of American Politics After 2020, which is scheduled for release in the fall of 2020.

Way Too Early precedes Morning Joe at 5 AM ET.

“So I am going over the fine print here and it is 5 AM? Is that what I signed up for?” Lemire joked to Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski as they made the announcement.

Lemire will start his role as permanent host of Way Too Early on Tuesday, and said that the show will have “a real reporter’s sensibility,” with lawmakers and officials on to talk about “what is driving the day.”

Lemire has been with the AP for the past eight years. He previously worked for The New York Daily News for 10 years.

Politico also announced that Max Tani would join Politico as a member of its West Wing Playbook team. He’s been covering the media beat for The Daily Beast since 2018, and previously covered politics and media for Business Insider.

Politico also announced that Tina Sfondeles would shift from West Wing Playbook to full time for the White House team, focusing full-time on justice-specific issues.

Way Too Early started in 2009 with Willie Geist, and has since featured a number of different media figures as hosts. It was replaced in 2016 with Morning Joe First Look, but returned to the schedule in 2020 with Hunt as the host.

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