Chris Cillizza | |
|---|---|
 Cillizza at the 2024Gaithersburg Book Festival | |
| Born | Christopher Michael Cillizza (1976-02-20)February 20, 1976 (age 49) Marlborough, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | Georgetown University (BA) |
| Occupation | Political commentator |
| Spouse | Gia Cillizza |
| Website | youtube |
Christopher Michael Cillizza (/sɪˈlɪzə/; born February 20, 1976)[1] is an Americanpolitical commentator, who worked for the television news channelCNN from 2017 to 2022. Prior to joining CNN, he wrote forThe Fix, the dailypolitical blog ofThe Washington Post, and was a regular contributor to thePost on political issues, a frequent panelist onMeet the Press, and anMSNBC political analyst.
Currently, he maintains a political blog.[2]
Cillizza was born and raised inMarlborough, Connecticut.[3][4][5] He attendedThe Loomis Chaffee School an independent boarding school inWindsor, Connecticut, and graduated in 1994.[6][5] He attendedGeorgetown University from 1994 to 1998, where he graduated with aB.A. inEnglish.[7] He currently resides inFalls Church, Virginia with his wife and two children.[8] He is ofSicilian andIrish descent.[9]
After working as a novelist and later an intern for conservative writerGeorge Will,[10] Cillizza began his career in journalism. He later worked on theWashington, D.C. newspaperRoll Call prior to joiningThe Washington Post.[11] ForThe Cook Political Report he covered gubernatorial races and southern House races. He wrote a column on politics forCongress Daily. During his four years atRoll Call, which he joined in June 2001, he reported on campaign politics from the presidential to the congressional level, finishing his time atRoll Call as the paper's White House correspondent.[12]
His freelance work has appeared in publications such asThe Atlantic Monthly,Washingtonian, andSlate.[13] He has also been a guest on CNN,Fox News Channel and MSNBC.[12] After multiple guest appearances on the network, he was named a MSNBC Political Analyst, a position he resigned when he accepted a position at CNN.[14] He is also a frequent panelist onMeet the Press.
He is an adjuct faculty at theS.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications ofSyracuse University.[15]
Cillizza founded the blogThe Fix in 2005 and wrote for it on a regular basis until he joined CNN in 2017.[16] The blog's focus was American electoral politics, with Cillizza commenting ongubernatorial,Congressional andpresidential elections. He hosted the weeklyFix live chat.
From 2007 to 2008, Cillizza was a co-host of theMySpace/MTV Presidential Dialogues, which hostedJohn McCain,Barack Obama, and others in alive-streamed, interactive Presidential event series. Cillizza and fellowThe Washington PostcolumnistDana Milbank appeared in a series of humor videos calledMouthpiece Theater, hosted byThe Washington Post. An outcry followed a video in which, during a discussion of the White House "Beer Summit", they chose new brands for a number of people, including "Mad Bitch Beer" forHillary Clinton. Both men apologized for the video and the series was canceled.[17]
In July 2012,Broadway Books (a division ofPenguin Random House) released his book,The Gospel According to the Fix.[18] Written in ablog-like format,[19] it contains lists such as "The 10 Best/Worst Negative Ads", as well as coverage of the "deep personal hatreds that politics provoke" and predictions for the2012 and2016 presidential elections.[20]
Since 2014, Cillizza has served a regular co-host ofThe Tony Kornheiser Show.[8][21]
On April 3, 2017, Cillizza joined CNN as a "political reporter and digital editor-at-large," contributing online and on television.[16][22]
On June 28, 2017, CNN Politics announced the launch of "The Point with Chris Cillizza." According to the official press release, the new "multiplatform brand" will include "daily columns, on-air analysis, an evening newsletter, [a] podcast, and the launch of trivia night events in Washington, DC."[23][24] The show which is onYouTube releases political analysis videos hosted by Cillizza every Tuesday and Thursday.
Cillizza also runs political trivia on his personalInstagram account on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
On December 1, 2022, Cillizza was laid off from CNN.[25]
Columbia Journalism Review has described Cillizza's informal, "everyman" style as being popular with readers.[10] According to reviewers, "Chris Cillizza might be the only person in America who can have goofy fun talking about Trumpcare, Russian election interference, and the emoluments clause... Consequently, Cillizza tends to be a fly trap for criticism about his criticism."[10]Jay Rosen has compared his approach toinfotainment which turns political analysis into gamesmanship detached from real-world implications.[26][10] Former CNN hostSoledad O'Brien has described Cillizza's work as facile.[27][28]David Weigel has criticized Cillizza for focusing on predictions rather than factual analysis.[29] In September 2020, Cillizza wrote an article stating that election models showed Donald Trump as having "almost no chance" in the upcoming election.[30] Political commentator Nate Silver criticized Cillizza's interpretation, tweeting "If you don't do any reporting, have never demonstrated any insight about politics, and don't even write particularly well, you'd think you could at the very least understand that 20% ≠ 0%."[31] Cillizza, along withMark Halperin andRon Fournier, was cited byFelix Biederman andVirgil Texas as one of the inspirations for their parody political punditCarl Diggler.[32]
CNN executives were expected to inform staffers about layoffs at the network Thursday morning, according to these people. CNN correspondents Alison Kosik, Martin Savidge, Alex Field, Mary Ann Fox and Chris Cilizza are among the staffers who have been let go, according to two people familiar with the matter.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
