Throughout his career on Fox News, "Special Report" host Bret Baier has seemed more interested
in reporting the news than making himself the story. From his family to his writing
career to his surprising skills on the mic, this is the side of Bret Baier you don't see
on Fox News.
After graduating from DePauw University with a degree in political science and English,
Bret Baier became something of a journalism journeyman. In 2021, he told Naples Illustrated,
"I bounced all over the country. Hilton Head, South Carolina; Rockford, Illinois; Raleigh,
North Carolina... I've covered everything from Elián González, to tornadoes, 14 hurricanes,
and Timothy McVeigh."
Baier's career then appeared to settle down in 1998 when he landed the role of Atlanta
bureau chief at Fox News. But just three years later, the broadcaster was back on the move,
with his personal catalyst being one of the darkest days in American history.
Discussing where he was on 9/11, Baier explained,
"After the first tower was hit, they called us to be the backup to the New York broadcast.
Then, I was called to drive to New York. Then, I was rerouted to D.C. after the Pentagon
was hit. I was doing live reports outside the burning Pentagon, and I never left D.C.
I started my stint in D.C. as the Fox national security correspondent about two weeks later,
interviewing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld."
In 2004, Bret Baier walked down the aisle with wife Amy, a communications graduate who'd
previously worked for Calvin Klein and the pharmaceutical corporation Eli Lilly and Company.
And the pair, who are also proud parents to sons Paul and Daniel, have been happily married
ever since.
So how did the couple meet? Back at the turn of the century, two of their friends who were
dating each other decided to do a bit of matchmaking and hook Amy and Bret up. Despite the fact
they were living hundreds of miles from each other, the future husband and wife agreed
to a first date. In fact, Amy traveled all the way from Chicago to Washington D.C. to
meet Bret at a Rolling Stones gig.
In a 2021 interview with Naples Illustrated, Amy recalled,
"I had zero expectations but I got back on the plane thinking I'd met someone very special.
And when Bret dropped me off at the airport, he told his best friend, 'I am going to marry
her.'"
Within a few years, the Fox News host proved himself to be a man who keeps his word.
Within hours of being born, Bret Baier's son Paul was forced to undergo a life-saving operation
after no fewer than five congenital heart defects were discovered. And the brave youngster
has since had to endure several other similar procedures, including a fourth open heart
surgery in 2020. And all this before he'd even turned 14.
In an interview with "People" several months after that fourth surgery, Baier discussed
how difficult the constant hospital visits have been, saying:
"As a parent, watching your kid go down the hall on this gurney, you want to be the one
on the gurney. You don't want your kid to have to go through this […] And so, it's
excruciating to go through. We don't want to go through it again."
Thankfully, it's unlikely that Paul will need to undergo another similar operation for another
decade. And the youngster himself appears to be taking it all in his stride, too. He
told the same magazine,
"It's sort of scary leading up [to the surgery] but once it's happened, you're like, 'What
was I scared about?' It's just the leading-up-to-it part."
As well as delivering and commentating on political news every Monday to Friday on the
Fox News network, Bret Baier has also found the time to write no fewer than four non-fiction
books since 2014. And all of them have topped the New York Times Bestseller list, too.
"Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower's Final Mission" was published in 2017, with
"Three Days in Moscow: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of the Soviet Empire" arriving in 2018.
His third book, "Three Days at the Brink: FDR's Daring Gamble to Win World War II,"
was published in 2019.
In 2018, a modest Baier told Naples Daily News that he didn't classify himself as a
presidential historian but more of "a reporter looking back at history."
Having looked back at the history of three former American Presidents, Baier has also
shifted the focus toward his own life story in 2014 with "Special Heart: A Journey of
Faith, Hope, Courage and Love," a book focusing on his son Paul's multiple heart defects.
So how does the "Special Report" host manage to pull double duty? According to him,
"A lot of caffeine, and I'm kind of a night owl."
It seems that Bret Baier sticks up for his coworkers. In 2020, Baier took umbrage with
Donald Trump's demand that colleague Jennifer Griffin should be given the boot for reporting
on a piece in The Atlantic which stated he'd made unflattering remarks about the American
military.
"My source, a former Trump administration official told me when the President spoke
about the Vietnam War, he said, 'It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker.'"
Firstly, the anchorman took to Twitter to call Griffin "a great reporter and a total
class act."
Baier then addressed the issue during a Fox News Sunday interview with Steve Mnuchin.
After the Treasury Secretary ran interference for the 45th president, insisting that Trump
totally supports the military, Baier steered the conversation toward Trump's call for his
colleague's firing.
"Do you think it's right for him to call for the firing of a reporter who has unnamed sources
who confirm parts of that story?"
Baier said that his call to have someone fired was interesting coming from a president who
says he's against 'cancel culture.' Mnuchin declined to comment on the matter.
Though Bret Baier is now proudly a man of faith, it took a while for him to truly embrace
his Catholic upbringing. The Fox News host regularly attended mass with his parents while
growing up, but ended up eschewing religion in his college years and the decade that followed.
It was only when his first son Paul was born with five congenital heart defects that Baier
began to rediscover his faith. The star would often ask friends and family for their prayers
and as a result, he began praying himself, too.
Baier and the rest of his family have continued to rely upon the power of prayer ever since.
He told Faithwire in 2018,
"I'm not afraid to say that. I think it makes me a better anchor; it definitely makes me
a better father and a better husband."
Don't be surprised if you ever see Bret Baier on the Golf Channel someday. As it turns out,
the "Special Report" host seems to spend most of his downtime at his local country club
practicing his swing. And apparently, he's pretty handy with a club. In fact, Golf Digest
describes him as the best player in television news!
Baier, who has a 2.1 handicap index, has regularly competed in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am tournament
and has even got his sons involved in the sport, too.
In fact, golf has been a great source of comfort on the many occasions eldest Paul has had
to undergo treatment for his congenital heart defects. In 2020, he told the golfing magazine,
"During those times in the hospital during his recovery, each day we were one day closer
to getting him out of there and fulfilling the dream of walking down the first fairway
with him. That got me through it. We've walked a lot of first fairways together."
And Paul looks to have inherited his father's talents having made the golf team at his middle
school.
Baier has also made many friends within the golfing world including 2010 U.S Open winner
Graeme McDowell. He added,
"We go back and forth with how he's doing and his family. He wants the lowdown from
inside Washington, D.C., and I want to get the lowdown on the PGA Tour."
Bret Baier and his family sure had a lucky escape in 2019 when the SUV they were traveling
in near Bozeman, Montana crashed into a pickup truck and rolled over into a nearby ditch.
"It was snowing, and the roads were icy. And approaching an intersection just two miles
from the airport, I hit a big patch of ice, and I could not stop our SUV."
Miraculously, the only injuries inflicted were relatively minor. According to reports,
three members of the Baier family were treated for the likes of a sprained ankle and concussion,
while the other driver also somehow managed to avoid any serious harm.
Stephen Colbert broke the news while hosting "The Late Show," acknowledging that Baier
had been due to appear on later that same week:
"They're all in the hospital. But they're gonna be okay. We just want to say we hope
you're doing better."
CNN's Wolf Blitzer, former Fox colleague Megyn Kelly and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow also wished
Baier well on Twitter, with the latter even sending the Highway Patrol who rescued Baier
and his family some pizza.
Just a few days after the incident, Baier returned to screens where he informed "Special
Report" viewers exactly what had happened, and told them to never take any day of their
lives for granted.
"I had to be here today to show you I was okay."
Bret Baier surprised everyone at the 2018 "Special Report" Christmas party when he laid
down a few bars with hip-hop pioneers The Sugarhill Gang.
Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien and Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright were in attendance to help the
Fox News show celebrate both the holiday season and Baier's 10 years as host. And they were
eventually joined on stage by the man himself for an impromptu performance of their 1979
anthem, "Rapper's Delight."
Baier acquitted himself well on the mic, with a consistent flow and even his own take on
some of the song's lyrics. But it turns out, he was far from unfamiliar with the music.
As Baier told his colleagues at Fox News, the track had been kind of his go-to song
since high school. This wasn't the last time he performed a verse to a crowd, either -- in
2019, he was invited to rap again live on stage at a Rascal Flatts concert.
It seems fair to say that there's at least one major issue that Bret Baier and Tucker
Carlson strongly disagree on. While the latter has gone out of his way to try and discredit
the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine, the former has proudly shown off the moment
he received it.
Unfortunately for the "Special Report" host, some of those who believe his colleague's
scaremongering took to the comments section to voice their paranoia, with some claiming
he was using his platform to try to improperly influence his audience. Others argued against
the merits of the vaccine itself, claiming that he'd just injected himself with nothing
less than actual poison.
Baier was in no mood to suffer his detractors, though. Responding on Twitter to the claims
that his post was trying to "coerce" his audience, he wrote,
"Where is the coercion? I posted a photo. There's no force or threat. You can unfollow
me if you don't like to see it, right? It's all a choice. Was former President Trump using
coercion when he encouraged people to get a vaccine on air after he did?"
The anchorman also had to dismiss claims that he had staged a fake vaccine shot, writing
in a second post:
"I promise you I had a real shot today. No conspiracy here. Thanks."
If you're a Fox News viewer who prefers their news to be relatively fair-minded rather than
opinionated, then you're in luck. Bret Baier will remain on your screens until at least
the year 2026!
Baier signed a five-year deal in 2021 that will ensure he remains the network's main
political anchor and host of "Special Report" for the foreseeable future. And Baier, whose
weekday early evening show consistently tops its timeslot's ratings, couldn't have been
more thrilled.
In a statement, he said,
"It has been my home away from home for almost a quarter century. Suzanne Scott, Jay Wallace,
and the Murdochs have been terrific leaders and bosses. I look forward to working closely
with my incredibly talented team to cover the important stories of our time in the fair
and honest way our viewers expect."
After that, well, it's a mystery. When asked how long he plans to stay in the same role
by The Atlantic in 2017, Baier admitted, quote, "I don't know if I'm going to be doing it
until I retire."
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