Ali Vitali is moving from the Capitol Hill beat to the Dawn Patrol.
Vitali, who has spent a decade at NBC News covering politics, campaigns and Capitol Hill, will leave her correspondent role in Washington for a new job anchoring “Way Too Early,” the 5 a.m. program that serves as sunrise lead-in to the cable-news outlet’s “Morning Joe.” Jonathan Lemire, the current anchor of the program, will lend analysis and commentary to “Joe’s” 9 a.m. hour. Vitali’s new job starts January 6.
In a statement, Vitali said she looked forward to “anchoring a show that’s been helmed by some of the smartest reporters in Washington,” adding that “I’ll continue working my sources and bringing viewers into the halls of power with fresh reporting and news-making interviews from Capitol Hill and across Washington.”
Vitali has worked her way up through the NBC News ranks, initially joining MSNBC in 2012 as an intern, editor and graphics producer. In 2015, she served as an embed covering the Trump campaign, moved to White House and broader political coverage as her experience grew. During her tenure, she has interviewed former presidential candidate Nikki Haley about in vitro fertilization, a controversial topic in some Republican circles, and covered the work of the January 6th Select Committee.
Her ascension to the early-morning anchor role suggests that MSNBC expects to continue to rely on the work of NBC News and traditional journalists, even as a recent decision by NBCUniversal parent Comcast to spin off the bulk of its cable properties has raised questions about how both MSNBC and CNBC will operate if they can no longer rely directly on the information collected by NBC News. Comcast expects to spin off the cable holdings at some point over the next 12 months.
Vitali in 2022 wrote “Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put A Woman In the White House…Yet”, a book detailing her experiences on the 2020 campaign trail and and examining double standards placed on female presidential candidates. She is a graduate of Tulane University.
“Way Too Early” first arrived on the MSNBC schedule in 2009, anchored by Willie Geist, who also held forth on “Morning Joe.” He was succeeded over the years by Brian Schactman and Thomas Roberts. among others. In 2016, the show was renamed “Morning Joe: First Look,” a decision that was reversed in 2020 when Kasie Hunt took over the hour under the “Way Too Early” moniker. She was succeeded by Lemire in 2021.
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