Nuzzi attended and graduated from Middletown High School South. She began her writing career as a teenager in 2011, as a monthly political columnist for the triCityNews, an alt weekly based in Asbury Park, New Jersey. She also wrote for More Monmouth Musings, a politically conservative blog and news website.
College, and Weiner mayoral campaign
While she was a 20-year-old junior attending Fordham University in 2013, Nuzzi volunteered and worked for four weeks as an intern for Anthony Weiner's New York City mayoral campaign. During her brief stint, she was hired as a full-time staff writer by NSFWcorp and described her experiences as an intern on the Weiner campaign in a blog post on July 28, 2013. In it, she asserted that Weiner referred to her and another female intern as "Monica," and that an unnamed source told her that Weiner had lied to his campaign manager, who had quit as a result, and that the manager was one of a "series of staffers who have fled the campaign". The New York Daily News commissioned her to write a follow-up article about the campaign, which two days later became its July 30, 2013, front page story. According to Nuzzi, some of her fellow interns were working in the campaign because they were hoping to meet Weiner's wife Huma Abedin, and through Abedin her boss Hillary Clinton, to be involved in Clinton's anticipated run for the presidency. In an interview with Talking Points Memo that was published that day, Weiner Communications DirectorBarbara Morgan, who later said she thought her interview was off the record, called Nuzzi a fame-hungry "bitch" who “sucked" at her job, and a "slutbag," "twat," and "cunt". Morgan said Nuzzi "was clearly there because she wanted to be seen.... she would just not show up for work," that Nuzzi had signed and violated a non-disclosure agreement, and that Morgan had earlier "tried to fire her, but she begged to come back and I gave her a second chance." Elspeth Reeve observed in The New Republic, "Disloyalty is generally not viewed kindly among political staffers." Morgan later apologized to Nuzzi for calling her names, and Nuzzi accepted the apology.
Presidential campaigns, and Trump administration
After being laid off by NSFWcorp in November 2013, Nuzzi was hired by The Daily Beast in May 2014 while she was still attending Fordham University. Nuzzi left school before graduating, to take the job. At The Daily Beast, Nuzzi covered the presidential campaigns of Rand Paul and Chris Christie, as well as Donald Trump's political rise. In November 2016, Politico named Nuzzi one of the "16 Breakout Media Stars" of the presidential election. In December 2016, Mediaite listed Nuzzi as one of 2016's twenty-five "most influential" people in news media. In 2018, Forbes included Nuzzi on its annual 30 Under 30 list. In February 2017, Nuzzi was hired by New York magazine to be its Washington correspondent. She has also written for Politico Magazine, GQ, Esquire, and The Washington Post. In early 2018, Nuzzi admitted to entering the home office of Corey Lewandowski, President Trump's former campaign manager, without permission, and taking a photo, and Lewandowski accused her of also taking a photo album of his. Nuzzi said: "You know, I just walked into the house, because nobody was answering at the door." She left the home after texting her boyfriend. Nuzzi said he advised her that "it probably wasn’t legal and that I should leave. I was like, ‘F---.'" In October 2018, President Trump personally invited her into the Oval Office for an exclusive interview.
