Bade started her journalism career in 2010 as a reporter for
Congressional Quarterly and
Roll Call. She joined
Politico in 2012 to cover tax policy, a beat that launched her career when the
IRS tea party targeting controversy broke. Bade covered the House Republican investigation of the IRS's scrutinization of conservative tax-exempt groups and was the only reporter to interview
Lois Lerner, the IRS leader at the heart of the scandal who asserted her Fifth Amendment right to Congress, refusing to answer investigators' questions. She won an award for her coverage of Speaker
Paul Ryan, who, she writes, was torn between a desire to land policy wins and a private concern about Trump's moral compass. Bade joined
The Washington Post as a congressional reporter in 2019 to cover House Democrats' oversight of the Trump administration. She helped lead the publication's coverage of the
Trump impeachment inquiry before starting on her book,
Unchecked. News from her book, as well as excerpts therein, appeared in
The Washington Post,
Politico Magazine,
The Atlantic,
Fox News, Playbook, and multiple other publications. In November 2025, Bade, after four years writing ''POLITICO's'' Playbook newsletter, left to start a project with
Sean Spicer and Dan Turrentine. ==Personal life==