2024 Special Guest Kristen Welker
Kristen Welker is the 13th moderator of Meet the Press, where she assumed the moderator chair on Sept. 17, 2023.
Previously, she was co-anchor of “Weekend TODAY” and NBC News Chief White House Correspondent, where her political reporting appeared across all NBC News and MSNBC platforms, including “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” “TODAY,” “Meet the Press,” and NBCNews.com.
She joined “Weekend TODAY” as co-anchor in Jan. 2020 and began covering the White House for NBC News in Dec. 2011, travelling domestically and internationally with President Obama, the First Lady, and then-Vice President Biden. Welker also covered President Trump’s administration, the 2020 presidential race and is currently leading the network’s coverage of all aspects of the Biden administration.
During the 2020 general presidential election, Welker moderated the final presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and now-President Joe Biden on Oct. 22, 2020 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Welker received universal praise for her performance, and USA TODAY wrote that she was “praised for ‘masterclass’ debate moderation.” In Nov. 2019, Welker co-moderated the fifth Democratic presidential debate hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, GA alongside Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell, and Ashley Parker of The Washington Post.
During the 2016 presidential election, Welker reported from the trail covering former Sec. Hillary Clinton’s campaign. She broke the exclusive that Vice President Joe Biden decided not to run for office that cycle.
Prior to the White House beat, Welker was a network correspondent based in Burbank, California, joining NBC News in 2010. During her first year at the network, Welker was nominated for a National Emmy Award for her role in NBC News’ midterm election coverage. She won a National Emmy Award for her role in NBC News’ coverage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Welker was also a researcher on “Weekend TODAY” early in her career and an intern for “TODAY” while in college.
Welker previously worked at WCAU-TV, NBC’s Philadelphia owned and operated station, where she anchored the NBC 10 weekend newscasts and started as a general assignment reporter in April 2005. She also previously worked at WLNE-TV in Providence, Rhode Island and KRCR-TV in Redding, California.
Welker, a native of Philadelphia, graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a Bachelor’s Degree in American history. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband John Hughes and daughter Margot Lane.
Follow Welker on Twitter @kwelkernbc.