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.
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The situation in Syria seems to have the Obama administration scrambling in the face of what appear to be no good options. Public opinion does not favor military intervention. On a different front, the president pushed for overhauling immigration while in Latin America last week.
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The Vatican is now under the control of the cardinals who will elect a new leader of the Catholic Church. On Thursday, Pope Benedict gave up his ring, cape and red papal shoes and became pope emeritus.
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The runup to President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday was overshadowed Monday by news out of Rome: the announcement that Pope Benedict XVI is resigning. What does this mean for the Catholic Church in America?
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President Obama goes before a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening to deliver his State of the Union message. White House briefers say the president plans to bring the national conversation back to the economy after weeks of focusing on immigration and gun violence.
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The president will visit the city's police department — most police organizations favor tougher gun laws. The president leaves behind a new Congress that's getting down to business. Consuming most lawmakers' time are the budget and deficit.
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The proposal would include a pathway to citizenship for millions of people now in the United States illegally. Republicans have led the opposition to that change up to now, commonly calling it amnesty.
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For more about the week ahead in politics, Renee Montagne talks to regular Morning Edition contributor Cokie Roberts.
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On Friday, members of Congress went home without settling their differences over how to avoid the spending decreases and tax increases known as the "fiscal cliff."
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President Obama is traveling in Asia this week after months of focus on his re-election bid. But even as the president works to shore up relationships around the world, Republican members of Congress continue to challenge the administration's handling of the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
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President Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney appeared in separate interviews on CBS's 60 Minutes. Despite many cries from Republicans that Romney needs to give specifics of his plans, he refused to do that on his tax overhaul proposals.