Three months after being put on “administrative leave” for publicly lying about having his Twitter account hacked, C-SPAN political editor and senior ep Steve Scully is returning to work this week, the cable news channel confirmed today.
“His initial assignments will be off-air producing for C-SPAN television and resumption of his work on C-SPAN Radio’s Washington Today program and The Weekly, a podcast/interview program,” the network said in a statement.
The network has not announced when Scully will return to TV, but continues to stand by him as the face of the network, saying “we view October’s events as a singular episode in an otherwise successful 30-year C-SPAN career, and while it was appropriate in October for Steve to be immediately relieved of his duties leading our 2020 election coverage, we reiterate our belief that now, having completed a three-month administrative leave, he can continue to contribute to C-SPAN’s mission.”
Scully’s original suspension came around the time he supposed to moderate the previously-planned second presidential debate of the 2020 campaign between President Donald Trump and now-Pres.-elect Joe Biden. The Miami debate was eventually scrapped after Pres. Trump contracted the coronavirus and then declined to participate in a virtual debate.
The week before that debate was set to take place, Trump publicly accused Scully of being a “never Trumper,” Scully proceeded to tweet: “@Scaramucci should I respond to Trump.”
The message was meant to be private and for Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s one-time communications director who has since become a vehement critic of the president.
Scaramucci ended up responding to Scully, essentially saying not to bother.
Scully then claimed he didn’t personally send the tweet, later backtracked, and eventually earned himself a 3-month-long suspension from his employer.