Jonathan Capehart reportedly leaves Washington Post after nearly two decades

Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart has reportedly accepted a buyout and is leaving the Jeff Bezos-owned paper after nearly two decades.

Capehart, who won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing with the New York Daily News in 1999, has served as an editorial writer for the Washington Post for over 18 years. He was a member of the editorial board until 2022, when he left the board over a dispute about an editorial on Georgia’s voting laws. He is leaving the paper after accepting a buyout, Axios reported Monday.

The columnist, who also hosts the MSNBC Show “Weekends with Jonathan Capehart” and provides commentary on the PBS “NewsHour,” is the latest high-profile Washington Post editorial contributor to exit the paper. 

A glut of writers — Ann Telnaes, David Shipley, Ruth Marcus, Eugene Robinson and, just earlier this month, Joe Davidson – all departed the beltway paper as concerns mount over the Washington Post’s editorial slant taking a rightward shift following President Trump’s re-election.

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Following Trump’s re-election, Washington Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced that the editorial section of the paper would be changing course, prompting then-opinion editor David Shipley to leave. 

“We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others,” Bezos posted on X in Feb 2025.

Bezos’ changes led to a sharp backlash in his newsroom, with staffers telling Fox News Digital earlier this month that morale has collapsed at the paper. Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray announced a buyout program for staffers seeking to leave the paper in May. 

“People are shellshocked and keeping their heads down,” one Post staffer told Fox News Digital.

Washington Post publisher and CEO Will Lewis sent a memo to staff encouraging those who took issue with the paper’s new editorial direction to take the buyouts.

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“I understand and respect, however, that our chosen path is not for everyone, that’s exactly why we introduced the voluntary separation program. As we continue in this new direction, I want to ask those who do not feel aligned with the company’s plan to reflect on that,” Lewis wrote in the memo.

Davidson, a post contributor who authored the Post’s “Federal Insider” column for 17 years, announced he was quitting the paper in a Facebook post titled “Quitting The Washington Post — or did it quit me?” He said that he decided to exit the paper after having a column rejected for being “too opinionated.”

Capehart’s relationship with the Washington Post has been increasingly acrimonious. In his recent memoir, “Yet Here I Am: Lessons from a Black Man’s Search for Home,” the former columnist trashed many of his colleagues at The Post’s editorial board. He accused Washington Post editorial board member Karen Tumulty of “robbing me of my humanity” in a disagreement over language used in an op-ed. 

The former Washington Post contributor has a history of vicious anti-Trump criticism. At one point, he said that MAGA was far more “worrisome” for the country than any foreign threat America could face in a 2021 segment on PBS NewsHour.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Washington Post and Capehart for comment.