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.

Pages

7:04pm

Thu March 15, 2012
Presidential Race

With New Film, Obama Hopes For Viral Video Boost

Originally published on Thu March 15, 2012 11:01 pm

Credit BarackObama.com/YouTube

2:07pm

Thu March 15, 2012
Mitt Romney

For Appeal To Future, Romney's Rhetoric Looks Back

Originally published on Thu March 15, 2012 4:59 pm

Every good political campaign has a motif, from President Obama's "hope" to John McCain's "maverick."

Read more

9:31am

Tue February 28, 2012
It's All Politics

A 'New Low'? Romney Has Admitted Voting In Other Party's Primary

Credit Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

In a final burst of campaigning in Michigan Tuesday, embattled GOP front-runner Mitt Romney complained that rival Rick Santorum was making automated phone calls to Democrats and urging them to vote against Romney in the Republican race. (Although only declared Republicans can vote in the party primary, voters can change their affiliation to cast a ballot.)

Read more

7:00am

Sun February 26, 2012
Presidential Race

Mich. Prospects Looking Up For Romney

Michigan holds its Republican primary on Tuesday. The former Massachusetts governor, and Michigan native, Mitt Romney has been touring the state in search of votes. A week ago, Rick Santorum held a double-digit lead in the polls. Now, NPR's Ari Shapiro reports, Romney seems to have closed the gap.

5:09am

Sat February 25, 2012
Presidential Race

On Romney's Michigan Tour, A Change Of Pace

Originally published on Thu March 29, 2012 4:18 pm

Credit Gerald Herbert / AP

Mitt Romney is on a bus tour across Michigan, hoping to win the votes of the state where he grew up. With primary day on Tuesday, Romney seems to have closed the gap in polls with Rick Santorum.

This trip has the feel of those early days campaigning back in New Hampshire, before any votes were actually cast: the long bus rides, the snowy landscape, even the impromptu restaurant drop-ins.

Read more

2:00pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Election 2012

Santorum Picks Up Momentum In Mich.

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum gained two endorsements on Friday, including one from Ohio's attorney general who had previously supported Mitt Romney. Santorum and former Massachusetts governor Romney are campaigning in Michigan ahead of its Feb. 28 primary.

5:09am

Sun February 5, 2012
Presidential Race

Romney Vows To Take Nev.'s Vote To Washington

Credit Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images

There was no 11th-hour surprise in the Nevada caucuses Saturday night. The first state in the West to vote in the Republican presidential race chose Mitt Romney, who won with support from a broad base and left his rivals trailing behind.

No Thanks To You, Mr. President

Nevada has been Romney country since at least 2008. That year, he took about half the vote in the caucuses but lost the Republican nomination to John McCain.

This year, he has his sights set higher.

Read more

5:10am

Sat February 4, 2012
Presidential Race

Out West, GOP Candidates Mine For Caucus Votes

Credit Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Saturday is caucus day in Nevada, the first state in the West to vote as Republicans go about choosing their presidential candidate.

Mitt Romney is counting on another win here to keep him on the path to the nomination. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have also been campaigning across the state, while Rick Santorum is in the Midwest looking ahead to later contests next week.

Believe it or not, Nevada leads the country in: unemployment, home foreclosures and bankruptcy.

Read more

3:41pm

Mon January 30, 2012
Election 2012

In the GOP Primary Race, Can Steadiness Trump Passion?

Credit Charles Dharapak / AP

Mitt Romney starts the week having undergone a transformation.

For almost a year, he tried to portray himself as the grown-up in the Republican race for the presidential nomination. Now, over the course of two debates and countless Florida campaign stops, the buttoned-up businessman is showing that he can get tough.

This shift has upended the yin-yang dynamic that has been playing out for weeks between the passionate, fiery Newt Gingrich and the staid, steady Romney.

Read more

3:29pm

Thu January 26, 2012
It's All Politics

Candidates Campaign On An Economic Silver Bullet: Worker Retraining

Credit Julie Jacobson / AP

There are not many things that Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney agree on, but when it comes to job training there is common ground.

"It is time to turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system that puts people to work," President Obama said during his State of the Union address Tuesday.

Earlier in the week, Newt Gingrich offered a similar solution for helping those facing long-term unemployment.

Read more

Pages