[4]) While in high school, Harwood served as a copy boy for the Washington Star, his first journalism job.

[3] After graduating from college, Harwood joined the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, working in Tampa Bay, Tallahassee, and Washington.

[3] Harwood frequently appears on Washington Week, a public affairs program on PBS formerly hosted by Gwen Ifill,[5] as well as NBC's Meet the Press, and MSNBC's Morning Joe.

[7][8][9][10][11] Harwood saw further criticism after the personal email account of John Podesta, who was then chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, was hacked and had its contents published by the website WikiLeaks in October and November 2016.

[14] Harwood drew scrutiny from conservative critics on February 6, 2020, when he stated that President Donald Trump was in "deep psychological distress" following his press conference after the U.S. Senate voted to acquit him on both articles of impeachment.

Malone had told CNBC in 2021 that "he'd like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing.