“Today” Hires Jenna Bush as Correspondent

The Associated Press reported today that Jenna Bush Hager, daughter to President George W. Bush, will be a part-time correspondent for “Today”, NBC’s popular morning news program. The 27-year-old Baltimore-based teacher will contribute stories about once a month on issues like education to television’s top-rated morning news show, said executive producer Jim Bell.

The former first daughter has already accomplished a fair amount at such a young age, having published two books. It was doing press to publicize one of her books that brought her attention according to Jim Bell. AP reports:

Bell said he got the idea after seeing Hager in two “Today” appearances. She was on the program two years ago to promote her book about an HIV-infected single mother, “Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope,” and it went so well that a short interview was stretched to nearly a half hour. She and her mother, Laura Bush, also co-hosted an hour of “Today” around the time their picture book came out.

She “just sort of popped to us as a natural presence, comfortable” on the air, Bell said. Hager will work out of NBC’s Washington bureau.

“I think she can handle it,” he said. “I think she knows something about pressure and being under some scrutiny. When she came here for a handful of appearances, she knocked it out of the park.”

Hager is self-assured on camera, as evidenced by this short interview she did with Ellen Degeneres while her father was in office.

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