Hoda Kotb is leaving NBC's 'Today' show early next year

NEW YORK (AP) — Hoda Kotb, a fixture at NBC for more than two decades, says she will leave her morning perch on the “Today” show early next year, telling staffers “it’s time.”

In a memo to her team — and later in an emotional on-air reveal Thursday — Kotb said her 60th birthday this summer helped trigger the departure: “I saw it all so clearly: my broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie.”

Kotb has co-anchored the first two hours of “Today” with Savannah Guthrie since 2018, filling in after Matt Lauer was fired amid sexual harassment allegations. She continued to co-host of the fourth hour of the morning show with Jenna Bush Hager, having previously hosted it alongside Kathie Lee Gifford. Kotb first joined NBC News as a correspondent for “Dateline” in 1998, and later joined “Today” in 2007.

Her daughters are Haley, 7, and Hope, 5.

Kotb was surrounded by her co-workers when she told viewers of her decision, saying, “This is the hardest thing in the world” and “I’ve been practicing so I wouldn’t cry, but anyway, I did.”

“We love you so much,” Guthrie, who has co-anchored “Today” with Kotb for more than five years, said with tears in her eyes. “And when you look around and see these tears, they’re love. You are so loved. We don’t want to imagine this place without you.”

Kotb's goodbye note mentioned many of her co-workers, like Al Roker: “Savannah: my rock. Jenna: my ride-or-die. Al: my longest friend at 30 Rock.”

“Happily and gratefully, I plan to remain a part of the NBC family, the longest work relationship I’ve been lucky enough to hold close to my heart. I’ll be around. How could I not? Family is family and you all will always be a part of mine,” she wrote.

“I’m actually excited for her,” said Imani M. Cheers, an associate professor of digital storytelling at the George Washington University. “I think it’s a huge loss, but I am so excited to see what she’s going to do next. I think it’s poignant. It comes a point in all of our lives: You do have to pivot.”

The move leaves two morning slots open for NBC as it tries to regain the top morning slot from ABC's “Good Morning America,” which features Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan.

Cheers said Kotb had the ability to do hard news and soft, be welcoming but also no-nonsense, making her a hard person to replace.

“She was able to bring a brevity and just a bubbly light touch, but also could be someone that’s going to talk about very serious and heavy topics. She’s trusted. You feel that if she’s reporting that it’s going to be fair and it’s going to be balanced. And that is really hard to come by,” Cheers said.

FILE - Co-anchors Savannah Guthrie, left, and Hoda Kotb pose on set of the "Today" show at NBC Studios on Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

This image released by NBC shows "Today" show co-host Hoda Kotb on the set in New York on June 12, 2024. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via AP)

This image released by NBC shows Hoda Kotb on the set of the "Today" show in New York on Feb. 29, 2024. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via AP)

This image released by NBC shows co-hosts Savannah Gutrhie, left, and Hoda Kotb on the set of the "Today" show in New York on June 10, 2024. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via AP)

FILE - Hoda Kotb appears on NBC's "Today" show at Rockefeller Plaza on Thursday, May 19, 2022, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting a man whose views public health officials have decried as dangerous in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.

“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said Thursday in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the appointment. Kennedy, he said, would “end the Chronic Disease epidemic" and “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”

Kennedy is one of the most prominent anti-vaccine activists in the world and has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism and other health issues.

Trump also announced Thursday that he has chosen Doug Collins, a former congressman from Georgia, to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. Collins is a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Command. The Republican served in Congress from 2013 to 2021, and he helped defend Trump during his first impeachment process.

Hailing from one of the nation's most storied political families, Kennedy is the son of the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy. He first challenged President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination last year. He then ran as an independent before abandoning his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role overseeing health policy in a second Trump administration.

He and the president-elect have since become good friends. The two campaigned together extensively during the race's final stretch, and Trump had made clear he intended to give Kennedy a major role overseeing public health as part of a campaign to "Make America Healthy Again.”

“I'm going to let him go wild on health," Trump said at a rally last month.

During his victory speech in Palm Beach, Florida, last week, Trump exclaimed, "Go have a good time, Bobby!”

Still, it was unclear precisely what job he would be offered. In an October interview on CNN, Trump transition co-chair Howard Lutnick assured there was no way Kennedy would receive the job he got.

The appointment drew alarms from public health experts.

“Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is not remotely qualified for the role and should be nowhere near the science-based agencies that safeguard our nutrition, food safety, and health,” said Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the public health watchdog group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press, “I don’t want to go backwards and see children or adults suffer or lose their lives to remind us that vaccines work, and so I am concerned."

“Any misinformation coming from places of influence, of power, are concerning," she said.

During the campaign, Kennedy told NewsNation that Trump had asked him to “reorganize” agencies including the CDC, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.

Kennedy has pushed against processed foods and the use of herbicides like Roundup weed killer. He has long criticized the large commercial farms and animal feeding operations that dominate the industry.

But he is perhaps best known for his criticism of childhood vaccines.

Again and again, Kennedy has made his opposition to vaccines clear. In July, he said in a podcast interview that “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective” and told FOX News that he still believes in the long-ago debunked idea that vaccines can cause autism.

In a 2021 podcast he urged people to “resist” CDC guidelines that advise when kids should receive routine vaccinations.

“I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to him, ‘Better not get them vaccinated,’” Kennedy said.

Repeated scientific studies in the U.S. and abroad have found no link between vaccines and autism. Vaccines have been proven safe and effective in laboratory testing and in real world use in hundreds of millions of people over decades. The World Health Organization credits childhood vaccines with preventing as many as 5 million deaths a year

Trump during his first term launched Operation Warp Speed, an effort to speed the production and distribution of a vaccine to combat COVID-19. The resulting vaccines were widely credited, including by Trump himself, with saving many lives.

Trump, in his announcement, said that, under Kennedy, HHS would "play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country.” But HHS does not have jurisdiction over many of those issues, which fall under the purview of the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture.

Kennedy is an attorney who has built a loyal following over several decades of people who admire his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies. He has pushed for tighter regulations around the ingredients in foods.

With the Trump campaign, he worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, with his message of making food more healthful in the U.S., promising to model regulations after those imposed in Europe. In a nod to Trump’s original campaign slogan, he named the effort “Make America Healthy Again.”

It remains unclear how that will square with Trump’s history of deregulation of big industries, including food. Trump has pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.

Kennedy’s stance on vaccines raises question about his ability to get confirmed, even in a GOP-controlled Senate.

He also has said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water, although fluoride levels are mandated by state and local governments. The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health and is considered safe at low levels.

He has said he would seek to ban certain food additives, cracking down on substances such as food dyes and preservatives, which are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. He has also targeted pesticides, which are jointly regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and the FDA.

Kennedy has also drawn headlines for his history with wild animals. He admitted to dumping a dead bear in New York’s Central Park — placing it as though it had been hit by a bike — and found himself the subject of a federal probe after his daughter revealed that he had cut off a beached whale’s head and strapped it to the roof of his car to take home.

HHS has more than 80,000 employees across the country. Kennedy has promised to take a serious look at those who work for HHS and its agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the CDC.

He has said he is especially focused on putting an end to the “revolving door” of employees who have previous history working for pharmaceutical companies or leave government service to work for that industry, his former campaign communications manager, Del Bigtree, told the AP last month. Bigtree is also an anti-vaccine organizer.

Kennedy said he wanted to fire 600 employees at the National Institutes of Health, which oversees vaccine research.

The expected appointment was first reported by Politico Thursday.

Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

Trump also announced Thursday that he will nominate Jay Clayton, who served as chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission during his first term, to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

__ Seitz reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington and JoNel Aleccia in Temecula, California contributed to this report.

FILE - Former Rep. Doug Collins speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, Oct. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

FILE - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign event, Sept. 27, 2024 in Walker, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)