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), chief political anchor of the network and co-anchor of the network’s election coverage. Baier is also host of FOX News Audio's "The Bret Baier Podcast" which includes Common Ground 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. where he was recently described as "the most influential news anchor in America right now" at the 2025 Semafor Trust in News summit.
During the 2026 United States-China summit, Baier anchored Special Report live from Beijing and presented an on the ground interview with President Donald Trump. In 2025, Baier interviewed multiple world leaders and newsmakers across the political spectrum, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, among others. Baier also traveled to the Middle East in May to anchor Special Report where he interviewed world leaders such as Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Saudi Arabia's Economy, Planning Minister Faisal Alibrahim, and President Donald Trump. Ahead of Super Bowl LIX, Baier sat down with President Donald Trump and, weeks before the 2024 election, he conducted FNC’s first formal sit-down interview with then-Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. The interview was the highest rated non-primetime interview in the history of cable news.
Since joining the network, Baier has played a pivotal role in coverage of every major political event. During the 2024 election, he co-anchored FNC’s election night programming, contributed to the coverage of the attempted assassination of then-candidate former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican and Democratic National Conventions as well as President Biden’s withdrawal from candidacy. Baier also 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 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.
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. 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.
Baier also co-anchored FNC's 2022 midterm election coverage as well as 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 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, as well as 2020 presidential debates with the first 2020 presidential debate being the most watched in cable news history with nearly 18 million viewers. 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. 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 then-President Donald Trump on Air Force One for a wide-ranging interview, his first 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.
In previous election cycles, Baier co-anchored extensive coverage of President Donald Trump's 2017 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. 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 with a B.A. in political science and English, he is the author of eight New York Times bestsellers: "Special Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope, Courage and Love" (2014), "Three Days in January" (2017), "Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire" (2018), "Three Days at the Brink: FDR’s Daring Gamble to Win World War II" (2019), "To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876" (2021), "To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment" (2023), "To Rescue the American Spirit: Teddy Roosevelt and the Birth of a Superpower" (2025), and "The Case for America: An Argument on Behalf of Our Nation" (2026).
In 2024, the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans awarded Baier with their signature award for his commitment to higher education, charitable efforts and success despite facing adversities.