The 'Huddle' in Washington

A few weeks ago, at an Italian café just outside Washington, D.C., Rachael Bade quietly met with Sean Spicer. Bade had recently parted ways with POLITICO after her most recent four-year stint at the outlet—a tenure that included co-authoring the outlet’s marquee newsletter Playbook—and was scouting her next move. She knew she wanted to build something independent, outside the guardrails of the mainstream press where she’d spent her entire career, but the precise form of that venture remained fuzzy.

Spicer, whose tenure as Donald Trump’s first press secretary was defined as much by his attacks on the press as by his truth-strained briefings, had just raised eyebrows across the political and media ecosystem. He and Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine had abruptly quit Mark Halperin’s startup media outlet 2WAY, abandoning the Washington-focused “Morning Meeting” show they’d co-hosted with the disgraced political journalist, who has sought to mount a comeback after being accused years ago by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment and assault. The departure had triggered much speculation: What, exactly, went down behind closed doors? Where would Spicer and Turrentine go next? The pair knew they wanted to launch a web-based show of their own, but the broader vision was not concrete either. So over Italian dishes, Bade and Spicer discussed Washington politics, the evolving media landscape, and eventually, about how they could potentially collaborate.

Immediately after lunch, Spicer phoned Turrentine to float the idea of teaming up with Bade. “I think for both of us, it was a no-brainer,” Spicer told Status in an interview. Conversations among the three accelerated quickly. And on Monday, after just a couple weeks of discussion, the trio will formally announce the launch of their new show, "The Huddle," debuting January 5. The digital program will stream each weekday at 8:30 a.m. ET on YouTube, X and other social platforms, with an accompanying audio podcast.

Suffice to say, there will be no shortage of scrutiny on how the program performs. Halperin, at the very least, will be paying close attention, given that "The Huddle" bears a conspicuous resemblance to the show Spicer and Turrentine abruptly left. On Sunday, Halperin announced the return of “The Morning Meeting,” bringing on politicos Ashley Etienne and J. Hogan Gidley to co-anchor the 9 a.m. show, presumably in a bid to get ahead of the offshoot venture.

Pressed on the circumstances of their 2WAY exit, Spicer and Turrentine repeatedly described it as a “mutual separation.” But their contracts were not set to expire in November, and it goes without saying that any time someone refers to their exit in such careful legal language, friction was likely present behind the scenes to prompt a rupture in the partnership. In the interview, though, the two stuck to their talking points: “We are not going to address what was a mutual separation,” Turrentine said.

The trio insist they are operating under no illusions about the challenges they face in launching the new venture, even after accumulating substantial followings independently. Political commentary is one of the most oversaturated corners of the media universe, and the low barrier to entry for independent media has produced a tsunami of Substack/beehiiv newsletters, YouTube shows, and other personality-driven franchises.

“I'm just happy that I can go out and build something that I actually want to build myself and not feel like I'm sort of in a straitjacket with either print journalism or television journalism,” Bade told Status, adding that the low barrier to entry in the independent digital media space has been “freeing” for her.

Bade, Spicer, and Turrentine believe they can break through, however, by playing to their respective strengths: Bade delivering fresh reporting, and Turrentine and Spicer providing relevant insight from their careers inside the political trenches. They’re betting that this model, combining a veteran reporter bringing sourced intel with seasoned operatives who’ve actually been in the room analyzing the state of affairs, will help separate "The Huddle" from other punditry. The 2WAY show, the trio noted, earned an influential audience, with those in “the highest levels” of government, from the White House to Capitol Hill, watching regularly.

While both Spicer and Turrentine remain ideologically aligned with their respective sides of the political aisle, Spicer said they will call things as they see them, maintaining that the show’s value lies in analyzing politics in an honest way. For Spicer, that means at times deviating from Trump and not being shy about pointing out the "warts” in the Republican Party, such as when he recently called out the GOP for lacking a health care proposal. In a twist of irony, he added, he’s now the one, at times, fielding frustrated calls from communications aides.

Of course, Spicer still carries baggage from his time working for Trump. While he was less extreme than successors Kayleigh McEnany and Karoline Leavitt, he still spun on the president’s behalf, attacking the press as “fake news” and, most infamously, insisting Trump’s inauguration drew the “largest audience to ever witness an inauguration,” despite evidence to the contrary.

In his conversation with Status, Spicer acknowledged that “there are self-inflicted wounds” from those years. But he attributed much of it to the nature of the job he accepted, saying his role in the West Wing was “to be a spokesperson for somebody else and to share their thoughts and their policies and their feelings.”

“Sometimes, I made mistakes doing that,” Spicer said. “Now I get to provide perspective and analysis on what I think. So I am accountable for what I say on ‘The Huddle.’ I am now speaking for me.”

The trio said they are equal partners in the new venture, which is independently owned and self-funded with no outside capital. They are actively seeking advertisers and brand sponsors ahead of launch and plan to hire or contract a small production team in December to help build out the operation. They’re also considering a companion newsletter, given Bade’s history co-authoring Playbook.

Needless to say, "The Huddle" will compete for both advertising dollars and audience against much more established enterprises, such as Playbook and Halperin’s 2WAY. It will also need to stand out in an independent media landscape that grows more crowded by the day.

Bade, Spicer, and Turrentine insist their mix of reporting and insider perspective will set them apart, and perhaps it will. But in a saturated market, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to rise above the daily crush of commentary across cable news, social media, podcasts, and newsletters. “The Huddle” will have to break through that logjam in order to stay in the game.

Correction: Bade worked at POLITICO for eleven years, with her most recent stretch lasting four years. This article has been updated to reflect that.

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