Bret Baier
Bret Baier serves as the anchor of FOX News Channel's (FNC) Special Report with Bret Baier, the number one news program on cable (6-7 p.m. ET)—averaging almost three million viewers a night. Before assuming this role, which he took over for Brit Hume in January of 2009, Baier served as chief White House correspondent, where he reported on presidential activities on a national and international level from 2006-2009.
Prior to being named chief White House correspondent, Baier served as national security correspondent based at the Pentagon—reporting on military and national security affairs, as well as on defense, military policy and the intelligence community from 2001-2006. Baier has reported from Iraq 12 times and from Afghanistan 13 times. He has traveled the world with various administration and military officials and on his own—reporting from 74 different countries.
Most recently he co-anchored FOX News 2012 election night coverage alongside Megyn Kelly—a night where FOX News Channel had more than twelve million viewers and finished second among all of the broadcast and cable networks in the ratings. Baier covered the 2012 campaign extensively—taking his show, Special Report, on the road to nine battleground states; anchoring the three Presidential and one Vice Presidential debates and the Republican and Democratic conventions.
Throughout his career, Baier has secured numerous exclusive interviews with government officials. He had the only interview with President Obama during the week leading up to the historic health care vote in the House of Representatives in March 2010. Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan called it, "The most revealing and important broadcast interview of Barack Obama ever." Additionally, Baier has interviewed President George W. Bush many times during his presidency and afterwards; Vice President Cheney; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers and his successor General Peter Pace. He has also interviewed many world leaders—including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in anticipation of key peace talks at the United Nations, Polish President Lech Kaczynski days after the U.S. decision to abort missile defense plans in Poland, and Georgian President Mikheul Saakashvili after the Russian invasion of Georgia. In addition, Baier had an exclusive interview with General David Petraeus—his final interview as the head of U.S. operations, live from Iraq in September 2008.
Baier has also anchored several specials on FNC, including one-hour specials on the Benghazi attack, cities declaring bankruptcy, the stimulus package, the bank bailout, the housing crisis, green jobs and the primaries of 2010. The Midterm election coverage in 2010, anchored by Baier and Kelly, was the most watched election coverage of any television channel—cable or broadcast. In early May of 2011, Baier moderated the first Republican Presidential debate in South Carolina as well as four additional FOX debates throughout the 2012 campaign season. Baier has anchored 2012 primary coverage for FOX News from New York and D.C.
Baier joined FNC in 1998 as the first reporter to be based in the Atlanta bureau. As the network's Southeast correspondent, Baier covered stories throughout the US and Latin America—ranging from the 2001 Timothy McVeigh execution to the 1999 Elian Gonzalez story. He also provided a series of reports from Cuba and covered more than a dozen hurricanes, including stories filed from the centers of those storms.
Prior to joining FNC, Baier worked for WRAL-TV (CBS) in Raleigh, NC, WREX-TV (NBC) in Rockford, IL and WJWJ-TV (PBS) in Beaufort, SC.
A graduate of DePauw University, Baier has a bachelor's degree in Political Science and English. He and his wife, Amy, reside in Washington, D.C. with their two young sons.
