Hugh Hewitt | |
|---|---|
 Hewitt in 2017 | |
| President and CEO of theRichard Nixon Foundation | |
| In office July 1, 2019 – November 8, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | William Baribault |
| Succeeded by | Jim Byron |
| In office January 23, 1989 – September 17, 1990 | |
| Preceded by | position established |
| Succeeded by | John Taylor |
| Deputy Director of theOffice of Personnel Management | |
| In office July 14, 1988 – January 20, 1989 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | James Colvard |
| Succeeded by | Bill Phillips |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1956-02-22)February 22, 1956 (age 69) Warren, Ohio, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) University of Michigan (JD) |
Hugh Hewitt (born February 22, 1956) is an Americanconservative political commentator, radio talk show host with theSalem Radio Network, attorney, academic, and author. He writes about law, society, politics, andmedia bias in the United States. Hewitt is a former official in theReagan administration, the former president and CEO of theRichard Nixon Foundation, a law professor atChapman University School of Law, a former columnist forThe Washington Post, and a regular political commentator onFox News. He is the14th most-listened-to radio talk show host in the United States.
Hewitt was born on February 22, 1956, inWarren,Ohio. He is the son of Marguerite (née Rohl) and William Robert Hewitt.[1][2][3] He describes himself as "a descendant of bothUlster andthe Republic through a green-orange marriage of immigrants fromCounty Down andCounty Clare".[4]
Hewitt attendedJohn F. Kennedy Catholic High School[5] inWarren, Ohio. He then graduatedcum laude fromHarvard University with aB.A. in government in 1978. After leaving Harvard, he worked forDavid Eisenhower and then as a ghostwriter forRichard Nixon inCalifornia andNew York, working on Nixon’s booksThe Real War andLeaders. At Nixon's urging he attended theUniversity of Michigan Law School, where he was inducted into theOrder of the Coif.[6] Hewitt received hisJ.D. degree in 1983, then moved toWashington, D.C., to clerk for JudgesRoger Robb andGeorge MacKinnon on theU.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1983–84.
Hewitt worked in many posts in theRonald Reagan administration, including deputy director and General Counsel of theOffice of Personnel Management, General Counsel for theNational Endowment for the Humanities, AssistantWhite House Counsel, and Special Assistant to theAttorney General.[7]
In 1989, Hewitt became the executive director of theRichard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.[8] In 1990, he sparked controversy by proposing screening of researchers wishing to use the library resources. Hewitt suggested refusing admission to researchers deemed "unfriendly" – specificallyBob Woodward, whom he characterized as "not a responsible journalist." John Taylor, a spokesman for Nixon, overturned Hewitt's decision after two days.[9] It became the subject of editorial rebuke inThe New York Times.[10]
Hewitt left the Nixon Library in 1990. He hosted a weekend radio talk show for theLos Angeles radio stationKFI,[11] where he broadcast until 1995. In the spring of 1992, he began co-hosting L.A.PBS member stationKCET's programLife & Times,[12] and remained with the program until the fall of 2001, when he began broadcasting his own radio show. Hewitt received threeEmmys for his work onLife & Times on KCET,[13] and also conceived and hosted the 1996 PBS seriesSearching for God in America.[14]
He has worked as a weekly columnist for theDaily Standard[15] (the online edition ofThe Weekly Standard) andWorld. He has appeared on programs such asTheDennis Miller Show,Hardball with Chris Matthews,Larry King Live,The O'Reilly Factor,The Today Show andThe Colbert Report.[16]
Hewitt also became a professor of law at Chapman University School of Law.[17] Hewitt founded the journalNexus Journal of Law and Policy.[18][19]
In 2019, Hewitt returned to the Nixon Library as president and CEO of theRichard Nixon Foundation, the nonprofit that co-operates the Nixon Library with theNational Archives and Records Administration. He succeeded businessman William H. Baribault.[6] On his first day in the job, Hewitt announced that he would split his time between Orange County and Washington, D.C., and open a Nixon Foundation office in Washington.[20] In November 2021, Hewitt was replaced as president and CEO by Jim Byron.[21]
In March 2020, afterJoe Biden won theSouth Carolina presidential primary, Hewitt predicted that Biden's victory would be of little benefit tohis campaign and thatBernie Sanders would perform strongly onSuper Tuesday; after Biden took the lead on Super Tuesday and eventually won the Democratic nomination,Politico named Hewitt's predictions among "the most audacious, confident and spectacularly incorrect prognostications about the year".[22]
Hewitt's nationally syndicated radio show,The Hugh Hewitt Show, is broadcast from California from 6 to 9 am EST on weekdays. The show appears on more than 75 stations[23] and is syndicated by theSalem Radio Network. Beginning April 4, 2016, the show moved to a morningdrive time slot.[24] Although Hewitt's background is in law, government, and politics, he also covers American cultural trends and the entertainment industry. He frequently critiques the mainstream media on air, often inviting journalists to defend their work on the show. His regular contributors include law professorsJohn C. Eastman, former Dean ofChapman University School of Law, andErwin Chemerinsky, erstwhile Dean ofUC Irvine Law School and current Dean ofUC Berkeley School of Law (whom Hewitt calls "The Smart Guys"),James Lileks,Mark Steyn, United States Naval Academy English professor David Allen White (who does a monthly Shakespeare showcase),[needs update] and CongressmanDavid Dreier (R-CA), as well as frequent callers from around the country. He used to spend the 15th hour of the week discussing movies with "Emmett of the Unblinking Eye".
| Hugh Hewitt | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Political news/opinion program |
| Presented by | Hugh Hewitt |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | MSNBC |
| Release | June 24, 2017 (2017-06-24) – June 30, 2018 (2018-06-30) |
On June 24, 2017,Hugh Hewitt debuted, a half-hour television show which ran on MSNBC in the Saturdays 8 am EST timeslot.[25] On the show, he conducted interviews and provided commentary on current events.[26] On Saturday, June 30, 2018, Hewitt announced that the show had been cancelled, but that he would continue his commentary on the NBC family of networks.[27] In 2020, NBC and MSNBC stopped inviting Hewitt to appear on their programs, which constituted a breach of contract. Thus, in 2021, Hewitt was released from that contract and started appearing on Fox News Channel. In November 2024, Hewitt quit his position withThe Washington Post following an appearance on the paper's live show.[28]
Hewitt has describedGeorge Will andCharles Krauthammer as models for his style of punditry.[29]Politico described Hewitt as an "ardent Reaganite".[30]
In a 2006 interview onCNN with Anderson Cooper, Hewitt said that in regards toGeorge W. Bush's decisions while President, theWar in Iraq would go down as "one of the wisest he has made."[31] In regard to theSyrian Civil War, Hewitt stated that President Donald Trump was making a "major error" in deciding to draw down the number of U.S. troops in the country, over seven years after the beginning of the conflict.[32] Hewitt has advocated for increasing the defense budget in the United States, stating that "any Republicans who vote against higher defense spending should be fired."[33]
Hewitt moderated several of the2016 Republican Party presidential debates and forums, where he clashed withDonald Trump.[34][35] Hewitt said that Trump did not possess "the temperament to be president".[30] In February 2016, Hewitt wrote that, despite being repeatedly publicly insulted by Trump, he would support him should he become the Republican nominee for president.[36] In June 2016, after Trump's controversial remarks concerning JudgeGonzalo Curiel, Hewitt publicly called on theRNC to disendorse Trump as nominee. A week later, Hewitt reversed his position in aWashington Postop-ed.[37] Internal emails showed that aSalem Media executive pressured Hewitt to support Trump, and that the Salem Media executive attributed Hewitt's support for Trump in the aforementionedWashington Post op-ed shortly after to the pressure.[38] Hewitt denied being pressured to change his position on Trump.[38]
On August 3, he publicly floated the idea of replacing Donald withIvanka Trump on the ticket.[39] On October 8, he called on Trump to drop out of the race after theAccess Hollywood tape emerged.[40] Hewitt has said he ultimately voted for Trump.[41]
Hewitt supported Trump's decision to re-shuffle his foreign policy staff in March–April 2018, and placeJohn Bolton andMike Pompeo in key national security positions.[42][30] He described John Bolton, azionisthawk, as "peace-through-strength,600-ship [navy],Reagan conservative" (as compared to Trump's approach, which Hewitt likened to theGreat White Fleet).[42] According toPolitico, Hewitt emerged "perhaps the most public advocate for Trump's hawkish new national security team at a time when others, even inside his own party, have voiced increasing fears that Trump is surrounding himself with war-minded hawks who may play to the president's worst instincts."[30]
Amid theTrump-Ukraine scandal, which led to thefirst impeachment of Donald Trump, Hewitt floated aconspiracy theory that thewhistleblower complaint that set off the scandal was by awhistleblower who was trying to divert attention from his own involvement in a "Clintons-Obama-Biden collusion debacle".[43][44] He penned an op-ed about the impeachment inquiry titled, "Impeachment-minded Democrats, welcome to Al Capone's vault. Look familiar?"[45][46] He said that theFBI had tried a "coup" against Trump and that Democrats were trying "another coup".[45] He described theJuly 25 phone call in which Trump requested that Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy investigate Joe Biden, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, as a "nothingburger".[45][46]
In October 2019, Hewitt defended Trump's decision to remove a small contingent of U.S. military forces from Northern Syria where they served as a buffer between Turkey andSyrian Kurds, leaving Kurds vulnerable to attack by Turkish forces.[47]
On his podcast on October 24, 2024, Hewitt, in a phone call with Trump, stated that he had voted for Trump for president in 2024.[48]
In a June 2018 interview with thenAttorney GeneralJeff Sessions, Hewitt repeatedly pressed Sessions about the morality of the Trump administration's decision to separate undocumented immigrant children from their parents.[49] Hewitt said, "I don't think children should be separated from biological parents at any age, but especially if they're infants and toddlers. I think it's traumatic and terribly difficult on the child."[49]
Hewitt has written several books concerning theChristian faith. He has several times accused the Democratic Party of being anti-religion. He attends church regularly. He is married to Betsy Hewitt, whom he married in 1982. He lives in Virginia with his wife and three children.[50]
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Media related toHugh Hewitt at Wikimedia Commons
