What To Know
- Ali Velshi delivered an emotional farewell on his final weekend morning show.
- The MS NOW host spoke of the crucial role of the press in holding power to account amid recent turmoil in network news.
- Velshi will move to the 11 pm slot on MS NOW starting June 15, 2026.
Ali Velshi became choked up on Sunday (June 7) as he signed off his self-titled weekend morning show for the final time ahead of his move to the 11 pm slot later this month.
In a passionate, 20-minute speech, the MS NOW anchor spoke about the important of the press in holding those in power to account. This comes after months of upheaval at network and cable news, including the recent staff changes and firings at CNN’s 60 Minutes.
“The press is not the enemy of the people. The press is the people’s guarantee that they will know what is done in their name,” Velshi said, per Mediaite. “Some of the institutions that taught this country what bearing witness looks like are right now under pressure from, or perhaps in bed with this administration. And that is not a coincidence.”
Velshi spoke about the history of various news networks, including CBS News, highlighting the likes of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite for delivering the truth about Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Vietnam War.
“That same CBS, the network of Murrow and Cronkite, paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit… a lawsuit from this president that first amendment lawyers called frivolous,” Velshi added, referring to President Donald Trump‘s lawsuit against CBS and 60 Minutes.
He continued, “The executive producer of 60 Minutes resigned on his way out, warning that the program’s independence was being compromised. His successor was fired for trying to preserve that independence.”
Velshi also touched on PBS and its important coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings. “Today, our president signed an order to defund PBS and NPR. Congress eliminated more than $1 billion in their funding,” he stated. “Now the administration wants career civil servants, the people who know what’s actually being done in your name with your money, to sign non-disclosure agreements, strip away the legal language.”
The longtime reporter said the Trump administration is “trying to make the witnesses afraid to speak while they prevent the press from reporting on what’s really going on… That’s why bearing witness has never mattered more than it does right now.”
Velshi, who was born in Kenya and raised in Canada, became teary-eyed as he talked about becoming an American citizen. “I chose America. I still choose it because of what was built here,” he said. “A nation founded not on blood or soil or a single faith, but on an idea and an argument and a set of rules generous enough on its best days to hold all of us.”
He added, “I choose it, I choose you, and I’m standing here in the studio as this program comes to an end, asking you who were born to it, who inherited it, or who, like me, chose it, to choose it again. Not because it’s perfect, America has never been perfect, but because democracy works when ordinary people decide that it will work, and because when it works, there has never been anything like it.”
Velshi is set to host The 11th Hour in the 11 pm slot, beginning June 15, 2026. The slot was previously held by Stephanie Ruhle, who will be moving back to the 9 am hour.