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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The economy remains at the top of the list of voter concerns. And this weekend, for the first time in four years, the Democratically-controlled Senate passed a budget plan aimed at getting the federal deficit under control. That plan was very different from the budget passed by the House.
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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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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."