Bret Baier currently serves as FOX News Channel's (FNC) anchor and executive editor of Special Report with Bret Baier (weeknights at 6-7PM/ET) as well as chief political anchor of the network. Baier is also host of FOX News Audio's "The Bret Baier Podcast" which includes Common Ground, The Campaign, The Candidates and The All-Star Panel. He joined FNC in 1998 as the first reporter in the Atlanta bureau and is now based in Washington, D.C.Read More
In April 2024, the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans awarded Baier with the Horatio Alger award for his commitment to higher education, charitable efforts and success despite facing adversities. Previously, Baier presented an exclusive interview on Special Report with Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bi Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani regarding escalating tensions in the Middle East. In September 2023, Baier anchored Special Report from Saudi Arabia where he presented an exclusive interview with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Following the interview, Baier interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who responded to the Crown Prince’s remarks on normalizing relations with Israel.
Throughout his tenure at FNC, Baier has played a critical role in every major political event since joining the network. Most recently, he co-anchored special coverage of the 2024 New Hampshire Primary and Iowa Caucuses alongside Martha MacCallum. In January 2024, he co-moderated three back-to-back town halls with MacCallum featuring 2024 GOP presidential candidates former President Donald Trump, former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Each town hall focused on the leading issues facing voters ahead of the Iowa Caucuses. In August 2023, Baier and MacCallum co-moderated the first Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The two-hour debate averaged 13 million viewers across FNC and FOX Business Network, making it the highest-rated non-sports telecast of the year in viewership. He has also moderated two iterations of The Senate Project series on FOX Nation, a bipartisan forum at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute which featured Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2022 and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) in 2023. Earlier in 2022, Baier provided live breaking news coverage surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, interviewing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. He also spoke with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Recently he co-anchored FNC's 2022 Midterm election coverage. In 2021, he co-anchored a one-hour election special entitled, Democracy 2021: Virginia Showdown with MacCallum. The program presented special live coverage of the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races as well as the New York City mayoral race. Previously, he co-anchored FNC’s Democracy 2020 election coverage alongside MacCallum, which garnered the highest ratings for election night coverage in cable news history, with 14.1 million total viewers. During the 2020 election season, Baier and MacCallum co-anchored coverage of the 2020 presidential debates with the first 2020 presidential debate being the most-watched in cable news history with nearly 18 million viewers, as well as the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Baier and MacCallum also moderated a series of presidential election town halls with then-candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders, Julian Castro, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and former mayor Michael Bloomberg. The duo’s town hall with former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders in April 2019 ranked as the highest-rated town hall featuring a 2020 presidential candidate, while their sit-down virtual special with President Donald Trump from the Lincoln Memorial in May 2020 drew in nearly 4 million viewers. In addition, Baier conducted an interview with 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the first Democrat to appear on the network for the 2020 election cycle. He also helped lead coverage of the 2018 election, which marked the highest-rated midterm election coverage in cable news history with total viewers, topping all of broadcast and cable news, according to Nielsen Media Research.
In 2019, Baier provided live coverage of the United States summit with North Korea, anchoring his nightly newscast Special Report from Hanoi, Vietnam. In 2018, he also contributed to FNC’s live coverage of the U.S. summit with North Korea that took place in Singapore, following which, he sat down with President Donald Trump on Air Force One for a wide-ranging interview, his first interview with the president in nearly 600 days. In October 2018, Baier presented an exclusive interview with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir to discuss the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Earlier that year, he exclusively interviewed the President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega on the country’s political and civil unrest. In April 2018, he presented an interview with former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey and later, contributed to the network’s live coverage of his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. In May 2017, Baier anchored live from Saudi Arabia to cover President Trump's first foreign trip and in April 2017, he held an exclusive interview with Jordan's King Abdullah II discussing the war on terrorism.
Previously, Baier co-anchored extensive coverage of President Donald J. Trump's inauguration alongside MacCallum, which delivered the highest-rated inauguration coverage in network history, according to Nielsen. In June 2016, Baier sat down for an exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama during the Tibetan leaders' visit with then-President Obama in Washington. In March 2016, Baier hosted FNC's only Democratic town hall with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, which was held in Detroit, the night before the Michigan primary. This marked Clinton's first appearance on FNC in two years and Sanders' first interview with Baier.
In August 2015, Baier, co-moderated the first GOP presidential debate of the 2016 election cycle. According to Nielsen, the debate delivered 24 million total viewers and 7.9 million in the key 25-54 demo, making it the highest-rated non-sports cable telecast of all time. Baier also co-moderated the network's second and third debates of the 2016 election cycle, held on January 28th in Des Moines, IA and March 3rd in Detroit, MI.
For the 2012 and 2016 political seasons, Baier served as co-anchor of FNC's America's Election Headquarters. On March 15th, 2016, FNC's coverage of the primary races in the seven select states averaged over 5 million viewers, which was the highest-rated primary night in cable news history, according to Nielsen. In addition, he provided expansive coverage of the 2012 campaign cycle, anchoring presidential and vice presidential debates, as well as the Republican and Democratic conventions. Baier also moderated FNC's five Republican presidential primary debates.
Baier has interviewed then-President Barack Obama, then-President George W. Bush and then-Vice President Dick Cheney. In 2014, he interviewed Hillary Clinton to discuss her book, "Hard Choices" and the 2016 presidential election. Additionally, he has anchored more than two dozen political specials on FNC, reported from Iraq 12 times and Afghanistan 13 times, traveled the world with various administrations and military officials and reported from 74 countries. He also hosted 13 Hours At Benghazi, a documentary featuring exclusive interviews with the American security operatives who fought on the ground during the attacks in Benghazi. Special Report with Bret Baier was acknowledged in 2012 by TIME Magazine's Joe Klein as the only "straight newscast" in cable news at 6PM/ET. He was awarded the 2017 Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. In 2023, Ad Fontes named Special Report as the most reliable news program.
Prior to his anchor role, Baier was named chief White House correspondent in 2006 and covered the second term of the George W. Bush administration. Before that, he served as national security correspondent covering military and national security affairs, as well as defense, military policy and the intelligence community from the Pentagon.
As FNC's Southeastern correspondent from 1998 to 2001, he covered a range of stories, including the 2001 Timothy McVeigh execution and the 1999 Elian Gonzalez story. He has also provided a series of reports from Cuba and covered more than a dozen hurricanes.
Prior to joining FNC, Baier worked for WRAL-TV (CBS 5) in Raleigh, NC, WREX-TV (NBC 13) in Rockford, IL and WJWJ-TV (PBS 2) in Beaufort, SC. A graduate of DePauw University, he has a B.A. in political science and English. He is also the author of six New York Times Best-Sellers, "Three Days in January," "Special Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope, Courage and Love," "Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire," as well as "Three Days at the Brink: FDR’s Daring Gamble to Win World War II" and "To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876". His most recent book, "To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment" was released in 2023 and made the New York Times Best-Sellers list.