This is the newest installment of The Producer I Can’t Live Without, a recurring TVNewser feature in which prominent news anchors and their longtime producers talk about their successful partnerships.
For this installment of The Producer I Can’t Live Without, we spoke with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash along with their longtime producer Rachel Streitfeld as the trio marks 15 years of State of The Union.
The casual news junkie is most certainly familiar with Tapper and Bash, but perhaps not Streitfeld. She’s a vital member of the CNN D.C. team who helps keep the trains running on time and has done so for nearly two decades.
Streitfeld joined CNN in Washington D.C. in 2006. She worked her way up the ranks — from campaign field producer to 2012 campaign embed covering New Hampshire’s Republican primary and Mitt Romney. She joined The Lead with Jake Tapper in 2015 as a producer, and then State of the Union, the network’s Sunday public affairs program, as a senior producer in 2018. After years working closely with Tapper and Bash, Streitfeld was recently promoted to executive producer of State of the Union. She also executive-produces Inside Politics Sunday with Manu Raju, and produces Bash’s Being … series on CNN. Needless to say, Streitfeld is a busy woman.
It’s rare for more than one high-profile on-air talent to work with the same producer for so many years (Tapper and Streitfeld have worked together for nine years, Bash and Streitfeld for 16), so we thought it would be interesting to hear from the trio themselves about why they think their professional partnership has worked so well over time. Here’s what Tapper and Bash had to say about Streitfeld and vice-versa.
This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity purposes.
TVNewser: How did this partnership between you and Rachel come to be?
Tapper: After the [2015] Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris, I was going to France to cover it for The Lead. We were looking for the best producer to go with, and Rachel just so happens to speak French. She wasn’t on my show staff at the time, she worked elsewhere in the [D.C.] bureau. She was just a great producer on the ground in Paris as we covered that horrible tragedy. Immediately, it became clear to me how great a producer she is, what a good person she is who’s smart and curious about the world, and how assured she is when it comes to getting a story and getting information so that we can report all that we have to viewers and let them know what’s going on. I don’t remember whether she joined the staff of The Lead before or after the next attack in Paris, the Bataclan murders, but she came back with me to cover that. After the first trip, I thought, “Whoa, we need to hire her, she’s amazing.”
She joined the staff of The Lead and then joined the staff of State of the Union. Now, she’s executive producer. It’s one of those impressed-at-first-sight stories.
Bash: Rachel is one of those people where when you meet them, you immediately know that they get it, and she is definitely one of those people like she gets it. She understands not only news value and news judgment, but brain works so quickly, and somehow her fingers work as quickly as her brain when she’s typing something and making it happen. She’s incredibly efficient. She’s obviously a multitasker as any good producer should be, but also just has such fantastic news judgment. She can kind of see around corners, like any a producer should and like a leader should. I saw that when she was not a big executive like she is now, but when she was coming up and working with me and with other correspondents in the field.
One of the things that I remember most even before the important news-gathering was on the CNN Election Express, which was a big bus where we’d broadcast from, and we used it as a backdrop all through New Hampshire back in the day. We also had a lot of fun things on the bus, and one of them was the [Nintendo] Wii. We used to bowl up and down the aisle of the bus when we are trying to stay awake in the frigid temperatures while we were doing live shots all day and all night.
I also remember so vividly coming back from maternity leave in 2012. I had my son in 2011, and came back just as the 2012 campaign was up and running. I really did check out during maternity leave, and jumped back into the fray of the campaign. Rachel was an embed, she was the person who was in charge of all things New Hampshire. I remember her being so incredibly helpful. Rachel knew everything that was going on, she could answer any question no matter how big or how small it was. She was a great reporter, which is what an embed is on the ground, and then went from New Hampshire to covering the nominee [Mitt Romney] when he was it was clear that he was going to be the nominee that year. She was such an incredible resource.
It’s not that often that there is a producer who can do so many different things. Rachel can report, she can write, she can make television, she can make television in the field, she can make television in the control room, she can lead a staff. She can do it all and has done it all, and that’s why she is so valuable to me now in the current position, and to Jake, because she has all that experience. She brings it all to the fore in everything that she does with this show [State of the Union], which is understanding the right questions to ask candidates or elected officials, whomever we have on the show, understanding what the news value is and should be in whatever question; making sure that we have the right follow up, not letting them off the hook. All of that comes from the depth of Rachel’s experience, nevermind that she just a fun person to be around.
Jake, why do you think your partnership with Rachel has proven so successful over all of these years? What’s the secret, or secrets to the success?
Tapper: I can’t speak for her but I just have a tremendous amount of respect for her work ethic and her determination to do the best show. I think she’s a wonderful person, and while being kind she’s also very determined to do the best possible show.
For State of the Union, we’re a small show. We have a small staff, we air twice and we’re competing with giant networks that have resources that we don’t have as a show; we might have them as a network, but we don’t have them as a show. We consistently have to punch above our weight. It’s just we’re competing with ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox Network, it really takes a tremendous amount of work and hustle and she rises to the occasion every time.
Rachel and Dana, what’s the secret to a successful producer-on-air talent partnership?
Streitfeld: I think having a high level of trust and mutual respect. Our job is obviously very stressful, and we do a ton of research to get ready for it. It’s very collaborative with both of the anchors; sending draft questions back and forth and research and planning things out and arguing over one word in a question and whether that’s gonna change the answer, even up to the show, when I’m communicating with them in their ears. They’re obviously fabulous thinkers, and a lot of my job to me feels like setting them up for success. Making sure that we have those smartest things that are forward-looking, and making sure that they have all the research that they need and the ammunition they need to do a strong interview.
Of course, we do end up having breaking news sometimes, which is a different challenge. We don’t have that every week. Our staff isn’t used to doing just breaking news coverage for hours, and sometimes we end up doing that and just trusting each other. “I didn’t get to write an intro there, but I know you’re gonna pick it up. Think of a good question to ask off the top of your head.” It’s just about communicating back and forth.
Bash: “Trust” is a word that I would definitely echo. First of all, you just have to have a vibe. It’s just kind of a “human” thing. You either have a vibe with somebody or you don’t have a vibe with somebody, and I think the fact that Jake and I are definitely different people and the fact that we can both have such a good vibe with Rachel says a lot about her.
Then, when it comes to what it takes, I trust Rachel, because of the experience that I described, because of the giant brain that she has, and because she has that ineffable thing where she has her finger on the pulse of what not only what makes good TV, but more importantly, what makes good journalism. When I’m preparing for a question, and I say, “I think we should do this,” and she says, “I think that’s a terrible idea.” Or, “Well, maybe you should do it this way.” I have so much respect for her informed opinion. There are times when I say something, and she doesn’t push back. Rachel will not say, “Don’t do this,” unless it’s really something she doesn’t think we should do, and she’s always right. Or when she says, “I really think we should do this.” And I say, “Well, wait a second, why do you think that we should pursue this line of questioning or talk about the topic?” And she’ll explain why. And I’ll say, “Oh, yeah, that makes sense.”
Then, there’s the high wire act of when we’re actually in the show doing a live interview. It’s not a secret out there that we have people in our ear, and Rachel is the person in our ear when we’re talking, and she just has this great way about her of just letting us do our thing when she knows that we’re onto something. Also, she keeps us on time, which is important! (laughter).
If we miss something, or if she feels like I’m onto something that I’m not getting, I trust her. She’ll say, “What about this?” She’ll do it really quickly and it makes a big difference. Because she, for the most part lets me do my thing. I know when she gets in my ear, I say to myself “Oh, I better get in on this.”
Streitfeld: I’ve learned so much from Dana and Jake. They’re such fabulous journalists, I feel so lucky to be working with them. I think Jake takes such a rigorous approach to stories, like, “Are we looking at all the angles?” “Is the conventional wisdom right, or is it actually wrong?” “Do we need to rethink it?” “What are the facts showing us?” “Do we need to push on that?” I think that’s so important for a Sunday show anchor.
With Dana, often I don’t need to get in her ear. She just will not let someone not answer the question. She’s nice, respectful, but she’s not going to let you get away without answering the question she’s asking, and that’s so important, especially for these kinds of in-depth interviews that we’re doing on Sundays. I’ve just learned so much from both of them.
Another interesting thing is, since we switch anchors, the tone might be a little different. With Dana, I get worried about timing because sometimes she gets going on an interview, and she really wants to get the answer. So, I just make sure that we have extra time. With Jake, sometimes the scripts have a little edge to them because that’s part of his tone. I really enjoy getting to work with both of them and their differences.
Other anchors we’ve spoken with say a lot of their success comes from the producer anticipating what the anchor might want or need … Do you find to be true?
Tapper: I think so. I am focused on a lot of other things before I get to Sunday morning; because I have The Lead, because we have special coverage, we have town halls like the one with Nikki Haley. State of the Union is always first in my heart but it’s not necessarily first on my mind.
When I think of something it is more often than not that Rachel says, “Yes, we already put in that call,” or, “Yes, he’s already booked,” or, “She’s already booked.” So, yes, she’s always anticipating where I need to be. I would compare it–because football is on my mind–to a great relationship between quarterback and receiver. The quarterback has to anticipate where the receiver is going to be, and the receiver is also trying to read the mind of the quarterback. That relationship works when they both understand each other. Whoever the quarterback is in this metaphor, it only works if they’re completely on the same page, and that is Rachel, absolutely.
Bash: Absolutely. You get in the zone, you get in a rhythm. Let me just say that as somebody who works in television and is on TV, my success is due to the people I work with. I know that sounds like really corny, but I cannot emphasize enough what a team sport television is.
That’s true across the board. If I look green on TV, then that would be bad. So the person who does the video in the control room is so important. But I know you’re specifically asked me about Rachel and about the producer dynamic, and it’s, it’s so true. When you get going, and when you get into that groove with a producer, you can skip a lot of steps and conversations. When you’re in a very intense moment in news gathering, and in the program, I can just tell by the tone of her voice, by a word that she says what she’s trying to say, and that is huge. Absolutely huge. Couldn’t agree more with that.
I realize there are a lot to choose from, but is there a one story you two have worked on together that really stands out?
Tapper: Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan were obviously very big. Charlie Hebdo was my first time with Rachel, and it was an especially tough story to parachute into another country for because they don’t speak English and we’re trying to get them to talk about one of the worst things that ever happened to them. That was important.
We’ve done a lot. We recently did an entire hour on climate change. We went to Israel and interviewed [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. That trip was a whirlwind week. We found out that the assignment was happening and we didn’t have a long time to prepare. We set up the interview, did the interview — it was a trial by fire situation.
We went to Oakland to interview [Vice President] Kamala Harris … just so many stories.
Charlie Hebdo is the big one because even though she wasn’t my executive producer at the time, it’s the one that’s the most resonant, because I was meeting her and seeing her excellence as a producer all at the same time in this very intensified period.
Streitfeld: A few weeks ago, I was really wanting to interview [Washington Democratic] Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. I think we all thought it was so interesting — this tension between Progressives and the White House over support for Israel in our war with Hamas. I thought this was a conversation that would be really interesting for our viewers to see. So, we booked the interview, we did a lot of research, and we gamed-out what the questions were going to be what the answers are going to be. Then, like I said earlier, our anchors are so good, and I trust them so much. They listen to the guests, which is more than you might think, and they just have excellent follow up questions. I thought it ended up being a really interesting and revealing interview and it got a lot of pickup.
Bash: The interview with Bibi Netanyahu was one where there were a million directions we could have gone in. This is recently, post-October 7. We worked really hard on the interviewer and to the point where we had the most important questions knowing that he’s a very tough interview. He’s an incredibly skilled communicator, among the best I’ve ever interviewed. It makes it challenging because he knows how to get around a question that he doesn’t want to answer very, very well. I was getting absolutely deluged by people who I knew and didn’t know from inside Israel, saying, “he will not take responsibility, you’ve got to ask him that.” He’s been asked this a million times, so I knew he wasn’t going to say, “you know what? I take full responsibility.”
Rachel and I, and the rest of the team, came up with ways to try to get at it that was new. Then, when it came to the moment, I don’t even know that I even asked what the follow-ups that we had planned, I just kind of went with it based on what he said. It’s one of those instances when Rachel just let me go. I’m pretty sure we went too long, which is the bane of Rachel’s existence (laughter).
Lastly, the name of this feature is The Producer I Can’t Live Without. Dana and Jake, what is one of the biggest ways that Rachel has saved you during your years working together? It can be on air or can even be off-air.
Bash: We were in Iowa this past June for a Town Hall with Mike Pence. He was Vice President of the United States and he was running for president. Do you remember him? (laughter). Rachel came with me and was my eyes and ears and my everything. I just remember coming off to the side during a break during the town hall, and she was there and she was asking me very important questions, like, “Can I get you water?” I said, “Yes, actually. That is exactly what I need.” (laughter)
Tapper: There are two of them. The most recent one is when she came to me he said, “I think we should book [Florida Republican congressman] Matt Gaetz.” This was right before Gaetz basically deposed [then-] Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy. Matt Gaetz is not usually my go-to, but Rachel’s instincts were 100% right. I said, “Okay, this is how we want to do it. We get all the news out and then push back on some of the things he’s saying in terms of who he is and what he stands foe.” That was a really important interview because it really set the stage for what was going to happen that week and the [House Speaker vote] chaos that followed. It was entirely Rachel’s instincts that allowed CNN to lead on that.
Going back to my point on the need for State of the Union to punch above our weight because we only have a handful of staffers — we book a lot of guests every other Sunday shows get mad about because our relationships — my relationships, Dana’s relationships, Rachel’s instincts and our senior booking producer Polson Kanneth‘s relationships too. It really requires a lot of work because ABC, NBC, CBS are 800-pound gorillas and we’re more like a 75-pound jaguar.
Also, when the war in Ukraine broke out, we went and did two Sunday shows from there. For one of them, we had two guests: [President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and Dave Matthews because Dave Matthews had a song out about Ukrainian refugees. It was just one of the most special shows, one of the most special hours of television I’ve ever been a part of. We were interviewing Zelenskyy in his palace as he was taking shells, and there were threats to his life and the war was really just a few weeks old. I think it was April 2022. Rachel was just indispensable in terms of setting everything up, anticipating where I’m going to be, making sure everything works. It’s not an easy thing to do, a Sunday show from a warzone. We’ve done a few now. We did it Israel, we did it in Ukraine. Really, she’s just the best.