Chuck Todd out at NBC News

Chuck Todd, the former moderator of "Meet the Press," is leaving NBC News. 

Todd, who has become a noticeably less visible presence on the network after he was replaced as "Meet the Press" moderator by Kristen Welker in 2023 after nine years in the chair, announced he would exit NBC on Friday. 

"Today is my last day… at NBC," Todd said on his podcast. 

"I am leaving a bit earlier than we had all originally planned, but there is a reason for it. I’m pretty excited by a few new projects that are on the cusp," Todd added. "The podcast is coming with me, and it’s not going away."

Todd said he would go on a "little hiatus" and then select a new home for the podcast. 

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Todd, who has been at the heart of NBC News’ political coverage for 18 years, first joined the network in 2007. There has been widespread speculation that Todd was seeking a new opportunity after seeing his role at NBC get scaled back in recent years. 

"We’re grateful for Chuck’s many contributions to our political coverage during his nearly two-decade career at NBC News and for his deep commitment to 'Meet the Press' and its enduring legacy. We wish him all the best in his next endeavors," an NBC News spokesperson told Variety. 

NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment. 

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After announcing his exit from NBC, Todd said he plans on continuing to share his reporting and perspective on all-things politics with data and history as "important baselines in understanding" the landscape. 

"The reason why I am ready to move, I think the media has a lot of work to do to win back the trust and I think, frankly, national media isn’t the place that’s going to be able to do it," Todd said. 

"This is no indictment of national media as the problem, I’m a believer that national media is never really that trusted by people. The farther away something is, the more skeptical we are," he continued. "People trust local media more than they trust national media."  

Todd believes the reason is simple.

"Local media tells them where there is traffic and tells them about the weather… at the end of the day, you feel like you can fact-check local media immediately. It feels a little more relevant. It feels like you know who these folks are," Todd said. 

He added that local media has been gutted in recent years, and declared that national media can’t fix its credibility problem "on its own."

"I’m pretty confident that we all sort of understand the challenge ahead of us," he said. "We can’t stick our heads in the sand, and we can’t be propagandists." 

Todd went on to blast "activists" masquerading as journalists, which he said is way too common these days. 

"I got to work at the former home of David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert. To be honest, I still can’t believe I got to follow in those amazing footsteps. That alone is the honor of a lifetime," he said. 

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Todd has not held back from criticizing media executives, including his now-former NBC bosses, in recent months. 

In December, the outspoken Todd said he would have felt "abandoned" if he were George Stephanopoulos during the legal dispute that led to ABC News settling with then-President-elect Donald Trump for a whopping $15 million.

"This was stunning to me and absolutely a gut punch to anybody that works at a major media company, because I think it does set a precedent that is going to be very difficult to get out from under potentially," Todd told Substacker Chris Cillizza.

Todd also notably criticized NBC News for hiring former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as an analyst in March 2024. He openly questioned his bosses for hiring McDaniel and for putting Welker in the awkward position of interviewing her about past 2020 election rhetoric.

"Let me deal with the elephant in the room," Todd told Welker in March. "I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation, because I don't know what to believe."

Todd said many of the network's dealings with the RNC under McDaniel's leadership "had been met with gaslighting" and "character assassination," and he referred to the internal tumult by journalists at NBC News who were apoplectic over McDaniel's hiring. McDaniel's contract was terminated less than a week later.

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Fox News Digital’s Jeffrey Clark and Joshua Q. Nelson contributed to this report.