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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The National Association of State Workforce Agencies tells lawmakers on Capitol Hill that it would take most states 8-20 weeks to move to a modified system of awarding benefits.
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President Trump often cites the coronavirus case fatality rate, saying it is more important than the number of cases or deaths. But medical experts say it's not a good way to measure the pandemic.
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The White House has disavowed a USA Today opinion piece by trade adviser Peter Navarro, who says Fauci has been wrong about the coronavirus. Fauci tells The Atlantic the attacks are "bizarre."
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President Trump shares a tweet from game show host Chuck Woolery, who claimed the CDC is lying about the coronavirus pandemic to hurt the president in November's election.
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The president has focused on the economy and the culture wars, but these days he says little about the pandemic that has killed 130,000 Americans.
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Vice President Pence and the Trump campaign are postponing events in Florida and Arizona "out of an abundance of caution" after increases of coronavirus cases in both states.
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On Friday, the RNC chairwoman was looking to local officials in Charlotte to guide convention plans. Now, the president has given North Carolina an ultimatum, as governors pitch other states to host.
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A former pharmaceutical executive and a four-star general will lead the initiative to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and get it to as many Americans as quickly as possible.
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The president said he changed his mind about pulling back from the team after hearing from "very respected people." He said the form of the task force would likely change as it focuses on reopening.
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While the trip to the battleground state is in part meant to tell a positive story about the administration's response to the pandemic, it also highlights the challenges of the moment.