
Tamara Keith
Tamara Keith has been a White House correspondent for NPR since 2014 and co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast, the top political news podcast in America. Keith has chronicled the Trump administration from day one, putting this unorthodox presidency in context for NPR listeners, from early morning tweets to executive orders and investigations. She covered the final two years of the Obama presidency, and during the 2016 presidential campaign she was assigned to cover Hillary Clinton. In 2018, Keith was elected to serve on the board of the White House Correspondents' Association.
Previously Keith covered congress for NPR with an emphasis on House Republicans, the budget, taxes, and the fiscal fights that dominated at the time.
Keith joined NPR in 2009 as a Business Reporter. In that role, she reported on topics spanning the business world, from covering the debt downgrade and debt ceiling crisis to the latest in policy debates, legal issues, and technology trends. In early 2010, she was on the ground in Haiti covering the aftermath of the country's disastrous earthquake, and later she covered the oil spill in the Gulf. In 2011, Keith conceived of and solely reported "The Road Back To Work," a year-long series featuring the audio diaries of six people in St. Louis who began the year unemployed and searching for work.
Keith has deep roots in public radio and got her start in news by writing and voicing essays for NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday as a teenager. While in college, she launched her career at NPR Member station KQED's California Report, where she covered agriculture, the environment, economic issues, and state politics. She covered the 2004 presidential election for NPR Member station WOSU in Columbus, Ohio, and opened the state capital bureau for NPR Member station KPCC/Southern California Public Radio to cover then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In 2001, Keith began working on B-Side Radio, an hour-long public radio show and podcast that she co-founded, produced, hosted, edited, and distributed for nine years.
Keith earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master's degree at the UCB Graduate School of Journalism. Keith is part of the Politics Monday team on the PBS NewsHour, a weekly segment rounding up the latest political news. Keith is also a member of the Bad News Babes, a media softball team that once a year competes against female members of Congress in the Congressional Women's Softball game.
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Vice President Mike Pence has been at the center of the coronavirus response — a crisis that has elevated his profile and conventional style, and may well define his future political ambitions.
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Thursday night's coronavirus task force briefing included preliminary research on how the virus responds to sunlight and heat. NPR's science and White House correspondents contextualize those claims.
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President Trump is ready to reopen America — at least the parts where coronavirus is less of a problem. How has his rhetoric throughout the crisis matched with the reality on the ground?
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When it comes to restarting the economy, President Trump said he had the power to override governors. But governors say they will set their states' pace, and they are not looking for a fight on this.
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NPR politics, science and national correspondents relay the latest news on the response in the United States to the coronavirus epidemic.
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Ben Williamson and Alyssa Farah — both close to new chief of staff Mark Meadows — will play senior roles. Kayleigh McEnany, a campaign spokeswoman, will become the new press secretary.
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Last week, more than 6 million jobless Americans sought unemployment benefits. NPR correspondents look at the rising economic fallout from COVID-19 — and the latest science and political news.
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Following the latest Coronavirus Task Force briefing, NPR correspondents detail the White House plan to categorize counties based on their coronavirus risk and the congressional rescue bill.
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NPR correspondents relay the latest on federal government efforts to aid the economy and stop the spread of coronavirus, as well as new scientific information about how COVID-19 is affecting people.
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The move frees up as much as $50 billion to help states deal with the crisis. But Trump overstated the readiness of a website to help anxious people find testing.