Ryan Lizza rips Politico as he leaves after sexting scandal involving ex Olivia Nuzzi, RFK Jr.

Politico’s former top reporter Ryan Lizza, whose ex-fiancée Olivia Nuzzi was embroiled in a sexting scandal with Robert F.Kennedy Jr., abruptly announced his exit from the online outlet — wildly trashing its weak coverage while asking for money for his new venture.In his first post for his new “Telos News” Substack, Lizza said he had “recently left” the publication because he believed “their style of political coverage is not meeting the unprecedented moment of democratic peril we are facing.”“This publication is my earnest attempt to cover the crisis in Washington with a clear-eyed understanding of what is actually happening,” wrote Lizza, who had been Politico’s chief Washington correspondent since 2019.He noted the new venture would be funded solely by readers — as he called on them to pay for subscriptions to help boost it up.“I have never written a fundraising appeal, and just typing this paragraph is deeply cringe-inducing for me.

But we want to create not just a news outlet, but a news community,” he said.“And that means I need your help.

Specifically, please pay for a subscription to show that you believe in this project.”Elsewhere in his first post, Lizza accused his former employer and other outlets of apparently kowtowing to President Trump after the commander-in-chief started publicly ripping his critics and threatening legal action.“I saw up close how easy it was for a media conglomerate to grovel before the Trump administration when the wrong people are in charge,” he wrote.Lizza ripped the outlet for opting to send one of its reporters to be an onstage guest at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) after Trump “attacked Politico for selling subscriptions to the federal government.”He described the conference as a “sewer of media bashing and cheerleading for the degradation of our democracy where some activists were publicly organizing an unconstitutional third term for Trump — in other wo...