Cokie Roberts
Cokie Roberts was one of the 'Founding Mothers' of NPR who helped make that network one of the premier sources of news and information in this country. She served as a congressional correspondent at NPR for more than 10 years and later appeared as a commentator on Morning Edition. In addition to her work for NPR, Roberts was a political commentator for ABC News, providing analysis for all network news programming.
From 1996-2002, she and Sam Donaldson co-anchored the weekly ABC interview program This Week. In her more than forty years in broadcasting, she has won countless awards, including three Emmys. She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, and was cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the fifty greatest women in the history of broadcasting. In 2020, she was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in the Longstanding Network/Syndication (20 years or more) category.
In addition to her appearances on the airwaves, Roberts, along with her husband, Steven V. Roberts, wrote a weekly column syndicated in newspapers around the country by Universal Uclick. The Robertses also wrote From This Day Forward, an account of their more than 40-year marriage and other marriages in American history. The book immediately went onto The New York Times bestseller list, following Roberts' number one bestseller, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, an account of women's roles and relationships throughout American history. Roberts's histories of women in America's founding era — Founding Mothers, published in 2004 and Ladies of Liberty in 2008 — also became instant bestsellers. Her most recent book, Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868, was published in 2015. In total, she wrote six national bestsellers that honored and elevated the role of women in American history.
Cokie Roberts held more than thirty honorary degrees. She served on the boards of several non-profit institutions and on the President's Commission on Service and Civic Participation. The Library of Congress named her a "Living Legend." Roberts was the mother of two and grandmother of six. She died on September 17, 2019, at age 75.
-
The camaraderie that veterans talk about used to be true in Congress too — partly because many members had served in the military. But today's Congress has very few veterans in its ranks, about 20 percent, compared with more than three-quarters in the post-Vietnam era. What does that number mean politically.
-
As Iran is set to hold nuclear talks with world powers, the Obama administration is working to convince senators to hold off on additional sanctions. And on Tuesday, voters across the country will go to the polls to elect mayors, governors and other officials.
-
This is Day 7 of the partial government shutdown, and there does not appear to be a resolution in sight. Why are the two sides so dug in?
-
President Obama on Saturday announced that he would wait on military action against Syria until members of Congress could vote on the resolution. Congress still has a week to go before its recess ends and lawmakers can discuss the matter.
-
Congress returns to Capitol Hill this week with the House in a quandary about immigration overhaul. The Senate-passed bill is "Dead on Arrival," according to many House members, and they are considering a variety of alternatives.
-
How could a barrage of controversies over Libya, the IRS and reporters' phone records affect President Obama's agenda and the 2014 elections. The president and his team have spent much of the past week answering questions, or deflecting questions, about three controversies.
-
Members of Congress are already expressing how they think the suspect in the marathon bombing case should be questioned and tried. Some lawmakers are also using the attack in Boston to argue both for and against overhauling immigration and gun control.
-
For more about the week ahead in politics, Renee Montagne talks to regular Morning Edition contributor Cokie Roberts.
-
On Friday, the Labor Department reported that fewer jobs had been added to the work force than economists had expected. Plus, the unemployment rate stayed stuck at 8.2 percent. Unsurprisingly, Republicans pounced on those numbers to make their case for defeating President Obama.
-
The Republicans could use the vice presidential slot to appeal to Hispanics. Meanwhile, President Obama used his weekly address to focus on the high cost of student loans.