CNN’s veteran White House correspondent John Harwood leaves the network

Veteran White House reporter John Harwood was the latest victim of CNN’s overhaul under new boss Chris Licht, announcing on Twitter that it was his last day with the network.

Harwood, 65, has a long and storied career that includes stints at the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and CNBC. 

He tweeted at noon on Friday that he had ‘personal news’ to share, and said ‘today’s my last day at CNN.’

The reporter, who has been with CNN since 2021, said he’s ‘proud of the work’ and thanked his colleagues.

‘I’ve been lucky to serve the best in American media – St. Petersburg Times, WSJ, NYT, the NBC family, CNN,’ he tweeted.

Harwood finished the message saying he’s going to ‘look forward to figuring out what’s next.’ 

Licht, who has only been at CNN for a few months, is reportedly under orders from executives to clean house at the network and shift away from opinion-based programming and move towards hard news. 

Harwood is the latest casualty in new CNN boss Chris Licht’s overhaul, where he aims to shift away from opinion-based programming

Harwood’s departure comes less than a month after CNN mainstay Brian Stelter was forced out of the network when they cancelled his Sunday media show Reliable Sources.

Stelter was reportedly summoned to Licht’s office and left looking ‘ashen’. 

The show has struggled, however, in its ratings war with Fox News.

Fox’s rival show, MediaBuzz, has averaged 1.5 million viewers this year, while Reliable Sources had 787,000.

Licht has made no secret of his desire to ‘blow up’ the networks New Day morning show, and has tasked right hand man Ryan Kadro with reimagining CNN’s morning broadcasts. 

Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s legal analyst, announced a week earlier that he would not be returning to the network after his vacation. 

Harwood was a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, and earlier this year he said Trump was ‘mentally unwell.’