Ongoing Coverage:

Ari Shapiro

Ari Shapiro reports on the White House for NPR with a focus on national security and legal affairs. His stories appear on all of NPR's newsmagazines, including All Things Considered and Morning Edition, where he is also a frequent guest host. Shapiro began covering the White House in 2010 after five years as NPR's Justice Correspondent, during which time his coverage of Justice Department policies and controversies chronicled one of the most tumultuous periods in the department's history.

The first NPR reporter to be promoted to correspondent before age 30, Shapiro has been recognized with several journalism prizes, including The American Bar Association's Silver Gavel for his coverage of prisoners lost in Louisiana's detention system after Hurricane Katrina; The Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for his investigation of methamphetamine use and HIV transmission; the Columbia Journalism Review's "laurel" recognition of his investigation into disability benefits for injured veterans; and the American Judges' Association's American Gavel for a body of work reporting on courts and the justice system. He has appeared as a guest analyst on television news programs including The NewsHour, The Rachel Maddow Show and CNN Newsroom.

Shapiro is based in Washington, D.C., where, as NPR's Justice Correspondent, he covered some of the most significant court cases in recent history, including Supreme Court rulings on Guantanamo detainees, the perjury trial of top White House official Lewis "Scooter" Libby and the fraud trial of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. He has also broken stories about the government's evolving approach to counterterrorism, detention and interrogation policies. He investigated abuses of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison and covered the legal proceedings against American soldiers accused of those abuses.

Before covering the Justice Department, Shapiro was NPR's regional reporter in Atlanta and then in Miami. In 2003, he was an NPR reporting fellow at WBUR in Boston.

Shapiro is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale. He began his journalism career in 2001 in the office of NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg. Shapiro was born in Fargo, North Dakota, and grew up in Portland, Oregon.

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Election 2012
4:08 pm
Tue December 6, 2011

Gingerly, GOP Contenders Address Payroll Tax Cut

Credit Alex Wong / Getty Images
White House press secretary Jay Carney speaks Monday during his daily press briefing, as a clock counting down the expiration of the payroll tax cut benefit looms in the background.

At the end of this month, a payroll tax cut is set to expire that the White House says would result in a tax increase of about $1,000 per year on most middle-class families. The benefit is popular with the American people, which may be one reason President Obama has been relentlessly promoting it.

The president argues that extending the payroll tax "holiday" through 2012 is vital to the economy. Republicans in Congress are divided over that, but they strongly disagree with the president's plan to pay for it with a surtax on millionaires.

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Around the Nation
6:56 am
Sat December 3, 2011

Decking The Halls: A White House Tradition

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 10:13 am

A group of more than 100 volunteers helped decorate the White House this year, covering the mansion in Christmas trees, cookie ornaments and several versions of the Obamas' dog, Bo. The real stars, however, were the military families who joined the celebration.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Transcript

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Election 2012
2:42 am
Wed November 30, 2011

Mitt Romney Courts Florida's Latino Voters

In Florida four years ago, Mitt Romney failed to persuade Republicans that he should be the party's nominee for president. This year, he hopes not to let that happen again. Romney made two quick campaign stops in the state Tuesday, and he made a special effort to appeal to Latino voters.

Politics
4:00 am
Mon November 28, 2011

Obama Office Alters More Federal Rules Than Bush

Credit AP
Cass Sunstein is the director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. A new study finds that the office has altered more federal regulations under President Obama than it did under George W. Bush.

Originally published on Mon November 28, 2011 5:26 pm

Tucked away in a corner of the White House's Old Executive Office Building, an office that most people have never heard of affects millions of Americans' lives. It's the last hurdle that every proposed regulation must surmount before seeing the light of day. And a new study of this obscure part of the government suggests that President Obama is altering more of those regulations than President George W. Bush did.

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Election 2012
3:00 am
Wed November 23, 2011

Debate Shows GOP Has Little Unity On National Security Issues

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep, good morning.

The new man at the top of some Republican presidential polls is Newt Gingrich. He's the latest of many candidates to emerge as an alternative to Mitt Romney in the race for the nomination. And Gingrich took some bold positions in last night's presidential debate.

CNN and two conservative think-tanks sponsored a talk in Washington on foreign policy, and NPR's Ari Shapiro was there.

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Politics
3:00 am
Tue November 22, 2011

Obama Presses Congress To Compromise On Cuts

Originally published on Tue November 22, 2011 4:25 am

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Congress threatened itself with punishment if it failed to act. Lawmakers promised automatic spending cuts if a special committee failed to reduce the deficit. Now that they have failed, some want a way out of the punishment with which they had threatened themselves. This may be just one more episode in a long fight over taxes and spending, as we hear from NPR's Ari Shapiro.

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Mitt Romney
12:23 pm
Fri November 18, 2011

Where's Mitt Romney? 'Running Out The Clock'

Credit Scott Olson / Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney arrives with his wife, Ann, for a rally at the American Polish Cultural Center earlier this month in Troy, Mich. The former Massachusetts governor is in effect the front-runner in the race for the GOP nomination, despite holding fewer rallies, town hall meetings or media appearances than other candidates.

Through the ups and downs of the Republican presidential campaign, Mitt Romney has remained in effect the front-runner.

He has done so even without holding as many rallies, town hall meetings or meet-and-greet events as some of the other candidates. He's also done fewer media appearances.

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NPR Story
3:00 am
Mon November 14, 2011

Summit; Free Trade In Asia-Pacific Vital To Recovery

President Obama has a low-key day in Hawaii Monday, before he flies to Australia and Indonesia. His weekend was full of diplomatic meetings at a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders. The president believes the U.S. has not paid enough attention to that region over the last decade. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan winding down, he's promising to devote more resources the Pacific Rim.

Economy
7:00 am
Sun November 13, 2011

Obama Shifts Economic Focus From Europe To Asia

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, host: President Obama is in Honolulu this morning, where's hosting world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, or APEC. It's the first stop on a nine-day tour that will also take Mr. Obama to Australia and Indonesia. NPR's Ari Shapiro is traveling with the president.

ARI SHAPIRO: These are familiar stomping grounds for President Obama. He brings his family to Hawaii every Christmas, and as he told a friendly crowd of business leaders yesterday morning:

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World
11:01 pm
Wed November 9, 2011

To Obama, 'Go West Young Man' Means Engaging Asia

Credit Larry Downing / Reuters /Landov
President Obama prepares to board Air Force One before departing Andrews Air Force Base for Philadelphia on Tuesday. He heads to Hawaii this week, where the U.S. is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Originally published on Thu November 10, 2011 11:01 pm

President Obama flies to Honolulu on Friday to begin the third Asia trip of his presidency. He'll visit Hawaii, Australia and Indonesia in a nine-day trip that's meant to reaffirm a fundamental shift in America's foreign policy.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has described this reorientation as "America's Pacific Century."

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