CNN Officially Swipes Major Talent for Correspondent Role

By Ashley Turner

CNN has added a journalist with valuable political experience to its staff. Alayna Treene, Axios's star congressional reporter, has left to join CNN as a correspondent. After Puck News first scooped the news, with Treene confirming the career move on Jan. 23. She noted she'd be working out of Washington, D.C. for the network.

Treene helped launch Axios as a founding member of the company in 2017, co-authored the weekly Axios Sneak Peek newsletter and covered Capitol Hill, the Biden administration, and elections. Reporting on both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Treene interviewed several political leaders for the Axios on HBO show and has been featured on various outlets, including MSNBC, CNN, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal. Treene, 28, grew up in Skillman, Montgomery Township, New Jersey, and graduated from George Washington University with a B.A. in journalism and mass communications in 2016.

In her early years, she interned for CBS News, Variety, and Bloomberg News before joining Axios as a staff reporter in 2016. In 2018, Treene became an associate news editor and covered the Trump administration and the impeachment inquiry as a White House and national political reporter. She has appeared as a political analyst on C-SPAN, Fox News, CBS News, and MSNBC. Forbes named Treene one of its "30 under 30" media stars in December 2021.

Eugene Scott, who will replace her on the congressional beat, joins Axios from The Washington Post. Scott is now a senior politics reporter covering Congressional leadership for Axios and the co-author of the forthcoming newsletter Hill Leaders. His work covering politics, business, and education has earned him multiple awards and fellowships. A Washington D.C. native and member of a politically active family, he graduated from Eastern High School and later went to school in North Carolina and Massachusetts. He has also worked in Kansas City, Phoenix and South Africa. In addition to earning a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Scott earned a master's degree in public administration from Harvard Kennedy School.

During the 1990s, Scott was a recipient of the former Washington Post publisher Donald E. Graham's scholarship program, which launched his career as a political journalist. A fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, Scott joined The Washington Post's The Fix in September 2017 to write about identity politics. He was a CNN reporter covering politics before joining the Post, covering the 2016 presidential election and serving as the senior reporter on CNN's political team. For MSNBC, NPR, and CBS, Scott provides regular on-air analysis. During his time at CNN, he contributed to a series called The First Time I Realized I Was Black, which prompted a greater public discussion of how skin color influences treatment. A National Association of Black Journalists member, Scott has also worked as a researcher at Time magazine and a reporter for the Charlotte Observer, The Arizona Republic, and the Cape Argus in Cape Town, South Africa.

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