Conservative pundit who left Fox News signs with NBC

Stephen Hayes, a conservative journalist and commentator who left Fox News last year over the company's publication of a controversial documentary about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, is joining NBC News.

Hayes, CEO of the political news and commentary website The Dispatch, will join NBC as a contributor and political analyst and is slated to appear on "Meet The Press" this Sunday, the network announced on Friday.

"I've known and worked with Steve Hayes on and off for nearly 25 years. He is a principled reporter and analyst who always puts truth and facts above emotion and sentiment ... even when it comes to our beloved Green Bay Packers," NBC News Political Director and Moderator of "Meet The Press" Chuck Todd said as part of NBC's announcement.

Hayes will be a key contributor to the network's special political and election coverage, including on streaming and digital as the outlet covers this year's midterms and the 2024 presidential election.

In November, Hayes and fellow conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg announced they had decided to quit Fox News, where they had been contributors for years, saying they had grown increasingly concerned with the content of Fox's prime-time opinion lineup, specifically host Tucker Carlson's documentary series examining the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Fox argued at the time of their resignations that the network did not plan to renew the contracts of Hayes and Goldberg.

"Indeed, the news side of Fox routinely does what it is supposed to do: It reports the truth," Hayes and Goldberg wrote in a joint blog post announcing their decision. "But the voices of the responsible are being drowned out by the irresponsible."

A so-called Never Trump conservative, Hayes worked at the now-defunct political commentary magazine The Weekly Standard for nearly two decades, first as a staff writer and eventually as the magazine's editor-in-chief.