David Weigel

David Weigel (born September 26, 1981) is an American journalist and columnist at the news website Semafor. Weigel previously covered politics for The Washington Post, Slate, and Bloomberg Politics and is a contributing editor for Reason magazine.

Early years and background Weigel was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. of the London commuter belt, in 2000. In the summer of 2001, he also had a "fun" internship at the libertarian Center for Individual Rights.

Political affiliations In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, Weigel voted for Ralph Nader, and served as a Delaware college elector for Nader. In May 2002, then-The Daily Northwestern writer and current Bloomberg News reporter Dan Murtaugh noted how "in two years Dave Weigel has gone from being a Ralph Nader-voting uber-liberal to the scorn of the leftist movement at Northwestern" and how Weigel underwent a "180-degree political turn" "after he was turned away from The Daily" and started working for The Chronicle. Weigel supported the Iraq War and crashed an anti-war protest at Northwestern University.

In early 2007, Weigel became a registered Republican in the District of Columbia in order to vote for Ron Paul at the Republican primary stage of the 2008 presidential election. In November 2008, Weigel voted for Barack Obama, explaining "I really don't think McCain has the temperament to be President or the interest in standing up to a Democratic Congress....I've got the luxury of a guilt-free, zero-impact vote in the District of Columbia, which I would cast for Bob Barr if he was on the ballot".

In the Republican Party presidential primaries 2012, Weigel voted for Jon Huntsman, despite his having withdrawn from the race, because "If you looked past his whiff of a tax plan (Huntsman recommended using the flat rates that Simpson and Bowles recommended not using), the guy had a few good ideas." In the 2012 general election, Weigel voted for Gary Johnson.

Career

Weigel began his professional career as an editorial assistant and researcher for the USA Today editorial page and as a reporter for Campaigns & Elections. He has contributed articles to Slate, The Daily Beast, Time, The Guardian, The American Prospect, The American Spectator, The Washington Monthly, The American Conservative, Politico, and The Nation. He has appeared on NPR's Fresh Air and MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show.

Weigel is a contributing editor of the libertarian Reason magazine and was one of its staff political writers from 2006 to 2008.

Return to the Post

After only nine months at Bloomberg Politics, Weigel returned to The Washington Post on July 20, 2015. His beat was to cover grassroots movements as part of the Posts presidential coverage. He began authoring the newsletter The Trailer in 2018, which focused on electoral campaigns.

On December 8, 2017, Weigel tweeted a photo of the crowd at President Donald Trump's rally at the Pensacola Bay Center in Florida that showed many empty seats. He quickly deleted the tweet after it was pointed out that the photo was taken before the venue filled up. Trump addressed the incident the next day on his Twitter account and demanded that Weigel be fired. Weigel replied and apologized, writing "Was confused by the image of you walking in the bottom right corner."

In June 2022, the Post suspended Weigel without salary for a month after he retweeted an allegedly sexist joke which characterized all women as either bisexual or bipolar. Weigel, who later removed the retweet and apologized, was publicly criticized by colleague Felicia Sonmez.

Semafor In September 2022, Weigel left the Washington Post and was hired by news startup Semafor, which launched the following month. He writes the Americana newsletter, which focuses on national politics.

Personal life Weigel was mentioned in a 2006 article in The New York Times about bloggers who roomed together. At that time, he shared a house with fellow Reason.com writer Julian Sanchez that they had dubbed "Casa de Libertarios".