MAGA-curious CBS News chief Bari Weiss reportedly “expressed significant interest” in hiring Trump-supporting anchor Sage Steele for the network’s morning show.
During conversations about the future of CBS Mornings held over the past few months, Weiss “repeatedly” mentioned Steele’s name, Status reports, although it said it is unclear whether the former ESPN host ever had serious discussions with the network about coming on board.
Status was also told that there are no current ongoing discussions between the two camps. The Daily Beast has contacted CBS News for comment. A CBS News spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by Status, and Steele did not respond to a request for comment from Status.
The media news outlet also reported that Weiss expressed interest in hiring Leland Vittert, the former Fox News correspondent who now works as an anchor for NewsNation. Vittert wrote for Weiss’ Free Press in September and appeared on her podcast for a 90-minute conversation soon after.
Steele spent 15 years as an anchor at ESPN after starting her career as a sports reporter in Indiana. Steele left the network in 2023 after settling a lawsuit against its parent company, Disney.
In the lawsuit, Steele claimed that her First Amendment rights had been violated, claiming the network had retaliated against her following comments she made on a podcast in 2021 criticizing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and questioning why Barack Obama identified as Black even though he had a white mother, as does she.
“Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my first amendment rights more freely,” Steele wrote at the time.
Steele served as a surrogate for Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential election, writing of her time working with the Trump campaign, “I will forever cherish my time with the amazing people of @teamtrump who worked so hard and sacrificed so much to help save America…and I will be forever grateful for the new friendships I made along the way.”
Since leaving ESPN, she has made regular appearances on Fox News, claiming during one appearance that she was given a script for a 2021 primetime interview with President Joe Biden and “told not to deviate.”
In another appearance on Hannity, Steele criticized South Korea’s 4B feminist movement, calling its adherents “not real women” and “not desirable.”
Laughing at Sean Hannity’s comment that the women involved in the movement, who refuse to date, marry, or have sex with men, are “nuts,” Steele said, “They are psychotic, frankly. But they are not real women in that way in my mind, I guess. They are not desirable women.”
Like Steele, new CBS News editor-in-chief Weiss also styles herself as a free speech warrior and iconoclast. Parachuted into the role by Trump pal David Ellison following his company Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of the Free Press, Weiss has worked overtime to push CBS News in a more MAGA-friendly direction since joining the network in October.
Her efforts have included promoting former CBS Mornings co-anchor Tony Dokoupil into the coveted evening anchor slot, where he has delivered Trump-friendly talking points and sinking ratings.
Weiss also brought several right-wing contributors on board in January, including Peter Attia, who was later forced to tender his resignation after the second release of the Epstein files revealed his close ties to the convicted sex trafficker.
Talent at the network has responded to the drastic changes by packing up and leaving, including 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper, to whom Weiss reportedly offered a “crazy amount” of money to renew his contract but who ultimately declined.
Behind-the-scenes talent has also departed the network since Weiss’ takeover, with several producers taking buyouts last month, including six who worked on CBS Evening News.
One departing producer slammed the changes at the network in a fiery farewell letter to her colleagues, decrying the fact that journalists were now being forced to “self-censor or avoid challenging narratives” at the network.
“The truth is that commitment to those people and the stories they have to tell is increasingly becoming impossible. Stories may instead be evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations,” Alicia Hastey wrote in her letter, noting that this created “a dynamic that pressures producers and reporters to self-censor or avoid challenging narratives that might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines.”
“None of this detracts from the talent of the journalists who remain at CBS News,” Hastey wrote to her colleagues. “You all produce thoughtful and important work, even under difficult circumstances. That is precisely what makes this moment so heartbreaking: the very excellence we seek to sustain is hindered by fear and uncertainty.”
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