She didn't have a bad reputation, she had years of good reporting at Axios before this

This isn't true.

In her official capacity as an Axios journalist, she committed very real and credible ethical violations by failing to publicly disclose her romantic relationship with Biden's Deputy Press Sec. TJ Ducklo despite covering Biden's admin. Although she claims that she notified her editors about the relationship and asked them to be taken off the beat, she continued reporting on stories specific to Biden nonetheless.

When Politico caught wind of the relationship and notified Biden’s comms staff that it was publishing an item on the affair, hours later, People magazine coincidentally published a glowing profile / interview of the couple. By every measure, this was a egregious attempt to get ahead of ahead of the Politico story calling attention to their conflict of interest. As Sam Stein, Politico's politics Editor put it:

Dear press hands: I understand it’s tempting to try and get ahead of a seemingly bad story by feeding it to another outlet that will handle it kindly. It may even seem strategic. But the short term gain you feel will be undone by the longer term damage from the act. Don't do it.

Putting her racist / homophobic tweets aside, it strain credulity that McCammond, as Editor in Chief, would've commanded the confidence of those at her new publication given her flaunting of ethical norms in journalism.