The Impact of Olivia Nuzzi's RFK Jr Affair

Olivia Nuzzi is on leave from New York Magazine after they discovered her romantic relationship with RFK, Jr, whose campaign she covered favorably while writing vitriolic pieces about Biden.

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Ever since the vicious and often unwarranted, at least in scope, attacks on President Biden’s age started, I’ve been disturbed by the lack of discernible evidence to justify it. Yes, he had a bad debate, but he did try to focus on policy, whereas Trump just thugged his way to victory. But his leadership capability was in evidence at NATO, which followed the debate, and with the return of the Americans detained in Russia, and in the implementation of his policies and in his incredibly successful oversight of the US economic recovery, for which he took a bow yesterday as the stock market set new record highs after the fed dropped the interest rate by 50 basis points, with more expected this year.

It just didn’t make sense. Especially seeing the same exact reporters give Trump, who is clearly struggling cognitively, a pass.

So Thursday evening’s revelation by Status that Olivia Nuzzi was put on leave by New York Magazine after they became aware of her romantic affair with 2024 presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy, Jr was revelatory. While it doesn’t explain the entire legacy media’s feeding frenzy on Biden, it does potentially explain one rather large source for the vitriol.

Recently our Washington Correspondent Olivia Nuzzi acknowledged to the magazine’s editors that she had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign, a violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures," a spokesperson for New York magazine said in a statement in response to questions from Status.

“Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign," the spokesperson added. "An internal review of her published work has found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias. She is currently on leave from the magazine, and the magazine is conducting a more thorough third-party review. We regret this violation of our readers’ trust."

Nuzzi said in her statement that the relationship wasn’t physical, and it didn’t impact her work, as she did not directly report on “the subject” or use them as a source.

But there is plenty of published work of hers that does exactly that, including a lengthy November 2023 piece, and given the evolution of romantic relationships, the lead-up is certainly a time of rose-colored glasses, flirting, and even euphoria that clearly would impact “objectivity.” However, the relationship didn’t begin until after that piece, according to “a person close to Nuzzi.”

Nuzzi was engaged to Ryan Lizza, who was let go from The New Yorker following sexual misconduct allegations after an internal review by The New Yorker and RFK, Jr is married to Cheryl Hines. RFK, Jr denies the romantic relationship with Nuzzi.

On July 4th, Nuzzi wrote, “THE POWER TRIP, The Conspiracy of Silence to Protect Joe Biden:

The president’s mental decline was like a dark family secret for many elite supporters..

The worry is not that Biden will say something overly candid, or say something he didn’t mean to say, but that he will communicate through his appearance that he is not really there…

The president had approached the lectern with his stiff gait, which his official medical report, written by Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who has led his care since he was Vice President, attributes to a foot injury and an arthritic spine.…

The pool reporters often struggle with the challenge of how hard it is to hear or make sense of the president. Radio reporters do not always obtain usable audio of his remarks. Print reporters squint and strain and crane their necks, trying to find the best position by which their ears may absorb the vibration of his voice in the air. Reporters scrutinize their audio recordings and read quotes to one another after the fact. Is that what he said? You heard it? In that order? You sure?

On and on it goes, building a rather emotionally led case against President Biden, especially given that he was facing off against a convicted felon who rarely makes sense and rants about Hannibal Lecter, nuclear war, windmills and sharks at his rallies while being unable to answer a policy question clearly and has yet to articulate any actual policy that he stands by consistently.

Nuzzi has always been a conservative, and her past tweets about President Obama while fangirling Ann Coulter at CPAC belie dismissals that these were “jokes.”