Bill Bennett | |
|---|---|
 Bennett in 2011 | |
| Director of theOffice of National Drug Control Policy | |
| In office March 13, 1989 – December 13, 1990 | |
| President | George H. W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Bob Martinez |
| 3rdUnited States Secretary of Education | |
| In office February 6, 1985 – September 20, 1988 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Terrel Bell |
| Succeeded by | Lauro Cavazos |
| Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities | |
| In office December 24, 1981 – February 6, 1985 | |
| President | Ronald Reagan |
| Preceded by | Joseph Duffey |
| Succeeded by | John Agresto (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | William John Bennett (1943-07-31)July 31, 1943 (age 82) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (before 1986) Republican (1986–present) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Robert S. Bennett (brother) |
| Education | Williams College (BA) University of Texas, Austin (MA,PhD) Harvard University (JD) |
William John Bennett (born July 31, 1943) is an American conservative politician and political commentator who served as the thirdUnited States secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 under PresidentRonald Reagan. He also held the post ofdirector of the Office of National Drug Control Policy underGeorge H. W. Bush.
Bennett was born July 31, 1943,[1] to aCatholic family inBrooklyn, the son of Nancy (née Walsh), a medical secretary, and F. Robert Bennett, a banker.[2][3] His family moved to Washington, D.C., where he attendedGonzaga College High School. He graduated fromWilliams College in 1965, where he was a member of theKappa Alpha Society, and received aPh.D. from theUniversity of Texas at Austin in political philosophy in 1970. He also has aJ.D. fromHarvard Law School, graduating in 1971.
Bennett was an associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts atBoston University from 1971 to 1972 and then became an assistant professor of philosophy and an assistant toJohn Silber, the president of the college, from 1972 to 1976. In May 1979, Bennett became the director of theNational Humanities Center, an independent institute inNorth Carolina, after the death of its founderCharles Frankel.
In 1981 President Reagan appointed Bennett tochair theNational Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), where he served until Reagan appointed himSecretary of Education in 1985. Reagan initially nominatedMel Bradford to the position, but due to Bradford's pro-Confederate views, Bennett was appointed. This event was later marked as the watershed in the divergence betweenpaleoconservatives, who backed Bradford, andneoconservatives, led byIrving Kristol, who supported Bennett.
While at NEH, Bennett published"To Reclaim a Legacy: A Report on the Humanities in Higher Education", a 63-page report. It was based on an assessment of the teaching and learning of the humanities at the baccalaureate level, conducted by a blue-ribbon study group of 31 nationally prominent authorities on higher education convened by NEH.[4]
In May 1986, Bennett switched from theDemocratic to theRepublican Party.[5] In September 1988, Bennett resigned as Sectetary of Education, to join the Washington law firm of Dunnels, Duvall, Bennett, and Porter. In March 1989, he returned to the federal government, becoming the first Director of theOffice of National Drug Control Policy, appointed by PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush. He was confirmed by theSenate in a 97–2 vote. He left that position in December 1990.
In April 2004, Bennett began hostingMorning in America, a nationally syndicated radio program produced and distributed byDallas, Texas-basedSalem Communications.[6] The show aired live weekdays from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, and was one of the only syndicated conservative talk shows in the morningdrive time slot. However, few stations carried the show due to a preference for local shows in this slot, and the show was mainly broadcast on Salem-owned outlets.Morning in America was also carried on Sirius Satellite Radio, on Channel 144, also known as thePatriot Channel.[7] Bennett retired from full-time radio on March 31, 2016.[8][9]
In 2008, Bennett became the host of aCNN weekly talk show,Beyond the Politics. The show did not have a long run, but Bennett remained a CNN contributor until he was fired in 2013 by then-new CNN presidentJeff Zucker.
Bennett has been moderatingThe Wise Guys, a Sunday night show onFox News, since January 2018. Carried onFox Nation as well, participants includeTyrus,Byron York,Ari Fleischer,Victor Davis Hanson, and others.[10]
Bennett writes forNational Review Online,National Review andCommentary, and is a former senior editor ofNational Review.
Bennett is a member of the National Security Advisory Council of theCenter for Security Policy (CSP). He was co-director ofEmpower America and was a Distinguished Fellow in Cultural Policy Studies atThe Heritage Foundation. Long active inUnited States Republican Party politics, he is now an author and speaker.
Bennett was the Washington Fellow of theClaremont Institute. He was also a commentator forCNN until 2013.
He is an advisor toProject Lead The Way and Beanstalk Innovation.[11] He is on the advisory board ofUdacity, Inc., Viridis Learning, Inc. and the board of directors of Vocefy, Inc. and Webtab, Inc.
In 2017, Bennett launched a podcast,The Bill Bennett Show.[12]
According to internal White House records from January 6, 2021, Bennett spoke on the phone with then-PresidentDonald Trump just before Trump went to the"Save America" rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol.[13]
On July 3, 2025, Bennett registered as a foreign agent with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), representing the interests of the State of Qatar.[14] According to his filing, he is expected to disseminate information through newspapers, magazines, lectures, speeches, emails, press releases, letters, and telegrams, and to influence public officials, legislators, government agencies, editors, newspapers, and educational groups. His Exhibit B disclosure states he is compensated $30,000 per month for these services.[15]
Bennett tends to take a conservative position onaffirmative action,school vouchers, curriculum reform, and religion in education. As education secretary, he asked colleges for stronger enforcement of drug laws and supported aclassical education. He frequently criticized schools for low standards. In 1987 he called theChicago Public Schools system "the worst in the nation."[16] He coined the term "the blob" to describe the state education bureaucracy,[17] a derogation which was later taken up in Britain byMichael Gove.[18]
Bennett is a staunch supporter of theWar on Drugs and has been criticized by some for his views. OnLarry King Live, he said that a viewer's suggestion of beheading drug dealers would be "morally plausible."[19] He also "lamented that we still grant them [drug dealers]habeas corpus rights."[20]
Bennett is a member of theProject for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the January 26, 1998 PNAC Letter[21] sent to PresidentBill Clinton, which urged Clinton to remove Iraqi leaderSaddam Hussein from power.
Bennett is aneoconservative, and[22] was an advocate for theIraq War.[22]
In 2016, Bennett vigorously supportedDonald Trump in his presidential campaign, writing that conservatives who objected to Trump "suffer from a terrible case of moral superiority and put their own vanity and taste above the interest of the country" and that "our country can survive the occasional infelicities and improprieties of Donald Trump. But it cannot survive losing the Supreme Court to liberals."[23]
In 2003, it became publicly known that Bennett - who had spent years preaching about family values and personal responsibility - was a high-stakesgambler who lost millions of dollars inLas Vegas.[24] Criticism increased in the wake of Bennett's publication,The Book of Virtues, a compilation of moral stories about courage, responsibility, friendship and other examples ofvirtue.Joshua Green of theWashington Monthly said that Bennett failed to denounce gambling because of his own tendency to gamble. Also, Bennett andEmpower America, the organization he co-founded and headed at the time, opposed an extension of casino gambling in the United States.[25]
Bennett said that his habit had not jeopardized himself or his family financially. After Bennett's gambling problem became public, he said he did not believe his habit set a good example, that he had "done too much gambling" over the years, and his "gambling days are over". "We are financially solvent," his wife Elayne toldUSA Today. "All our bills are paid." She added that his gambling days are over. "He's never going again," she said.[26]
Several months later, Bennett qualified his position, saying, "So, in this case, the excessive gambling is over." He explained, "Since there will be people doing the micrometer on me, I just want to be clear: I do want to be able to bet theBuffalo Bills in theSuper Bowl."[27]
On September 28, 2005, in a discussion on Bennett'sMorning in America radio show, a caller to the show proposed that "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" could preserveSocial Security if abortion had not been permitted sinceRoe v. Wade. Bennett responded by hypothesizing, "If you wanted to reduce crime, you could—if that were the sole purpose—you could abort every black baby in this country and the crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."[28][29]
Bennett responded to critics of his statement by saying, in part:
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with Bennett onThe Book of Virtues, January 9, 1994,C-SPAN |
Bennett's best-known written work may beThe Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories (1993), which he edited; he has also authored and edited eleven other books, includingThe Children's Book of Virtues (which inspired ananimated television series) andThe Death of Outrage:Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals (1998).
Other books:
In 1967, as a graduate student in Austin, Texas, Bennett went on a singleblind date withJanis Joplin. He later lamented, "That date lasted two hours, and I've spent 200 hours talking about it."[31]
Bennett married Mary Elayne Glover in 1982. They have two sons, John and Joseph. Elayne is the president and founder ofBest Friends Foundation, a national program promoting sexual abstinence among adolescents.
Bennett was the younger brother of the late Washington attorneyRobert S. Bennett.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities 1981–1985 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | United States Secretary of Education 1985–1988 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Director of theOffice of National Drug Control Policy 1989–1990 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Cabinet Member | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Cabinet Member | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Cabinet Member |
| SAODAP Directors (1971–1975) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| ODAP Directors (1977–1989) | ||
| ONDCP Directors (1989–present) | ||
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