Bret Baier

Bret Baier serves as the anchor of Fox News Channel's (FNC) "Special Report with Bret Baier," the number one cable news program in its timeslot (6-7 p.m. ET). 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 and reported on military and national security affairs, as well as on defense, military policy and the intelligence community from the Pentagon from 2001-2006.

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. Additionally, Baier has interviewed President George W. Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace. He has also spoken with 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 sit-down with General Petraeus, which was his final interview as the head of U.S. operations, live from Iraq in September 2008.

During his tenure at FNC, Baier has covered a variety of major news events, including the congressional vote on health care legislation and the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas. He provided up-to-the minute coverage of the war in Iraq – traveling to Iraq on 13 separate occasions since 2003. He's also covered the war in Afghanistan, reporting live there 11 times since 2001 -- including a two-week stint embedded with U.S. Special Forces along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Baier also reported notably on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States from the Pentagon and then followed the evolution of the attacks into the War on Terror. Previously, he reported on the U.S. military mission in Haiti and on the 1999 conflict in Kosovo and the 2000 election recount in Florida.

Baier has also anchored several political specials on FNC, including one-hour specials on the stimulus package, the bank bailout, cap-and-trade legislation and the first year of the Obama presidency. Additionally, he anchored numerous election specials throughout the 2008 campaign from the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, as well as election night coverage from New York.

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 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 the 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