How NBC’s Steve Kornacki prepares for a national election
USA TODAY’s Shafiq Saman spoke with Steve Kornacki, NBC News and MSNBC political correspondent, about why he finds election coverage “riveting.”
Steve Kornacki is jumping on board full time at NBC News and NBC Sports, leaving his longtime home at MSNBC.
A rep for NBC News confirmed Tuesday that TV’s “big board” guy will join NBC Sports as chief data analyst, covering the network’s marquee events such as NFL football, the Olympics, and the Kentucky Derby.
He is also set to continue as a regular contributor on “Meet the Press,” “NBC Nightly News,” “Today” and the NBC News Now streaming channel. The move comes as MSNBC, along with most of parent company Comcast’s other cable networks, is spun off into a separate, still-unnamed company.
Kornacki currently pulls double duty at both MSNBC, which he joined in 2012, and NBC News, where he was hired as a national political correspondent in 2017.
Kornacki’s profile rose during the 2020 presidential election, with his data-driven analysis and whiteboard squiggles becoming a favorite among viewers, as networks waited days to declare a projected winner in the race between former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.
Steve Kornacki recently opened up to USA TODAY about election night, ‘Kornacki khakis’
Kornacki recently opened up to USA TODAY about the buzz surrounding his “Kornacki khakis.”
Kornacki, 45, told USA TODAY “he truly did not get” the frenzy over his choice of outfit during the last election cycle. The NBC and MSNBC national political correspondent had gone viral on social media for his near ’round the clock election analysis and signature Gap khaki pants during the 2020 presidential election.
“I was amused by the interest,” Kornacki said. “I never really understood it. It’s not like I had (a) lifelong attachment to these pants. They were just what I happened to be wearing that day.”
Like CNN’s John King and Fox News’ Bill Hemmer, Kornacki told USA TODAY that it’s the adrenaline rather than food that fuels him on election nights.
“The reason I love doing election nights is that we spend so much time in the run-up to it, trying to figure out what’s going on, and coming up with all sorts of different theories,” he said. “That’s truly where the adrenaline comes in. For me, it’s ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re going to find out.’”
Contributing: Saman Shafiq
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