Dana Perino
Dana Marie Perino[1] (born May 9, 1972) is an American political commentator and author who served as the 24th White House Press Secretary, serving under President George W. Bush from September 14, 2007, to January 20, 2009. She was the second female White House Press Secretary, after Dee Dee Myers, who served during the Clinton Administration.[2] She is currently a political commentator for Fox News, while also serving as a co-host of the network's talk show The Five, and is a book publishing executive at Random House. On October 2, 2017, she began hosting The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino on Fox News.[3]
Dana Perino | |
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Perino in 2016 | |
Member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors | |
In office June 30, 2010 – December 31, 2012 | |
Appointed by | Barack Obama |
Preceded by | Ted Kaufman |
Succeeded by | Matt Armstrong |
26th White House Press Secretary | |
In office September 14, 2007 – January 20, 2009 | |
President | George W. Bush |
Deputy | Tony Fratto |
Preceded by | Tony Snow |
Succeeded by | Robert Gibbs |
White House Deputy Press Secretary | |
In office 2005 – September 14, 2007 | |
President | George W. Bush |
Leader | Scott McClellan Tony Snow |
Preceded by | Scott McClellan |
Succeeded by | Tony Fratto |
Personal details | |
Born | Dana Marie Perino May 9, 1972 Evanston, Wyoming, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Peter McMahon (m. 1998) |
Education | Colorado State University Pueblo (BA) University of Illinois, Springfield (MA) |
Early life and career
Born in Evanston, Wyoming on May 9, 1972,[2] she is the daughter of Janice "Jan" and Leo Perino,[4] and grew up in Denver, Colorado.[5] Two of her paternal great-grandparents were Italian immigrants.[6][7][8] She attended Ponderosa High School in Parker, a suburb southeast of Denver.[5] Perino graduated from Colorado State University Pueblo with a bachelor's degree in mass communications and minors in both political science and Spanish.[2] She was on the university's forensics team and worked at KTSC-TV, the campus-based Rocky Mountain PBS affiliate.[9] She also worked at KCCY-FM on the 2 to 6 a.m. shift.[10] Perino went on to obtain a master's degree in public affairs reporting from the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS).[11] During her time at UIS, she also worked for WCIA, a CBS affiliate, as a daily reporter covering the Illinois Capitol.[12]
Perino next worked in Washington, D.C. for Congressman Scott McInnis (R-CO) as a staff assistant before serving nearly four years as the press secretary for Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-CO), who then chaired the House Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power.[9][13]
After Schaefer announced his retirement in 1998, Perino and husband Peter McMahon moved to Great Britain.[5]
In November 2001, Perino returned to Washington, D.C., and secured a position as a spokesperson for the Department of Justice,[14] at which she served for two years.[15]
Perino then joined the White House staff as the Associate director of communications for the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), where she provided strategic advice on message development, media relations and public outreach.[16][17] The House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), claimed in its findings on climate change censorship, that the CEQ exerted undue control of media relations in governmental scientific agencies during her tenure.[18]
Press secretary
Perino was hired by White House chief of staff Andy Card two months after the September 11 attacks. Initially, she was associate director of communications for the White House CEQ.[4]
Perino served as Deputy Press Secretary from 2005 to 2007. From March 27 through April 30, 2007, she was the Acting White House Press Secretary while Tony Snow underwent treatment for colon cancer.[19]
On August 31, 2007, President George W. Bush announced that Snow would be resigning his post for health reasons and that Perino would become his replacement.[20] Perino served as Assistant to the President and as White House Press Secretary from September 14, 2007, until the end of the Bush administration in January 2009.[21][22]
On December 14, 2008, a TV journalist, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, threw two shoes at Bush during a Baghdad press conference. Bush successfully dodged both, but Perino's eye was injured by a microphone stand during the commotion surrounding al-Zaidi's arrest.[23][24][25][21]
Post-Bush administration career
Since leaving the White House, Perino became a political commentator on Fox News. She is a regular co-host on the talk show, The Five. In November 2009, she was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an agency overseeing government-sponsored international broadcasting,[26] and was confirmed by the Senate on June 30, 2010.[27] In 2010, she started teaching a class in political communications part-time at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management.[28] In March 2011 the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., announced that Perino had joined its books imprint Crown Forum as Editorial Director but she has since left this position.[29]
In 2015, she claimed that climate scientists had fabricated temperature data and that climate science was "fraud science"; Politifact rated her claim as "pants on fire."[30]
On September 18, 2016, Perino's podcast Perino & Stirewalt: I'll Tell You What, co-hosted with Chris Stirewalt, premiered as a weekly limited series on the Fox News Channel. A new "I'll Tell You What" is released late Wednesday night of each week.
Personal life
Perino met her future husband, English-born Peter McMahon, in August 1997. They were married in 1998.[4] In May 2012, Perino appeared on Jeopardy! during its "Power Players" week, facing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and CNBC's David Faber.[31]
Perino has been a resident of Bay Head, New Jersey.[32]
See also
Bibliography
References
- The Five : FOXNEWSW : March 10, 2014 2:00pm-3:01pm PDT, FOXNEWSW, March 10, 2014, retrieved January 28, 2021CS1 maint: others (link)
- Keller, Susan Jo (November 26, 2007). "Dana Perino". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 2, 2010.
- "DETAILS: Fox News Channel to Launch New Daytime Lineup". Fox News Insider. September 26, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017.
- "Dana Perino: Press Job Like Herding Cattle". Archive.newsmax.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
- Barge, Chris (March 31, 2007). "Coloradan steps right into the media spotlight". Rocky Mountain News. Archived from the original on March 27, 2008. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
- Ruffino, Elissa (2008). "White house press secretary dana perino to address public policy lecture series". National Italian American Foundation. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved March 25, 2010.
- "Dana Perino – Voce Italiana Online – Washington DC". Voceitaliana.com. January 1, 2004. Archived from the original on September 2, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
- Dana Perino Interview: "Minute Mentoring Interview with Janice Perino (a.k.a. My Mom)" March 28, 2013
- Zaletel, Cora (January 18, 2009). "White House Press Secretary to present Spring commencement address at CSU Pueblo". Colorado State University Pueblo. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
- "Perino's Faux Pas: Brian's Boner Recalled". wordpress.com. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
- "Dana Perino – U of I grad makes good". University of Illinois Alumni Association. Fall 2007. Archived from the original on February 27, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
- "Dana Perino – UIS grad makes good". University of Illinois Alumni Association. Fall 2007. Archived from the original on February 27, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
- Baxter, Sarah (December 14, 2007). "Bush's cool blonde is a northern gran". The Times. London. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved December 14, 2007.
- Roberts, Michael (September 19, 2007). "New Forecast". Denver Westwood News.
- Brass, Kevin (September 21, 2007). "Media Watch: The Improbable Rise of Dana Perino". Retrieved December 17, 2008.
- Marshall, Christa (August 31, 2007). "Coloradan takes over for Tony Snow". PoliticsWest, The Denver Post. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011.
- "Dana Perino – Assistant to the President and Press Secretary". U.S. Government. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
- "Political Interference With Climate Change Science Under the Bush Administration" (PDF). United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. December 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 5, 2010. Retrieved June 26, 2010.
- Abramowitz, Michael (September 1, 2007). "Tony Snow Resigns as White House Spokesman". ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- "White House Daily Briefing". C-SPAN. August 31, 2007. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
- "Dana M. Perino". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
- Carswell, Sue (December 2008). "Dana Perino's Ready for a Glass of Red Wine". Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 8, 2017.
- "Sole Survivor". Checkpoint Baghdad. December 14, 2008. Retrieved December 14, 2008.
- "Bush ducks flying shoes during Iraq visit". CTV Television Network. December 14, 2008. Archived from the original on December 15, 2008. Retrieved December 14, 2008.
- "Iraqi Journalist Hurls Shoes at Bush". The New York Times. December 15, 2008. Archived from the original on June 25, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2008.
- "Obama taps former Bush aide to key government post", AFP, November 19, 2009. Footnote augmented March 14, 2010.
- Kane, Paul (June 30, 2010). "Former Bush, Reid aides approved for broadcasting board". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 13, 2010.
- "Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino to Teach at GW's Graduate School of Political Management". George Washington University. July 14, 2010. Archived from the original on July 22, 2010. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
- "Dana Perino Appointed Editorial Director of Crown Forum". Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
- "Fox News host: Climate scientists 'fabricated' temperature data". @politifact. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
- "Dana Perino's 'Jeopardy!' performance". Video.foxnews.com. May 16, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
- Cotter, Kelly-Jane. "Coronavirus NJ: Fox News with Dana Perino, and her dog, broadcasts from Bay Head", Asbury Park Press, April 10, 2020. Accessed April 11, 2020. "Like many broadcast journalists, Fox News anchor Dana Perino now does this every day. Since March, when the COVID-19 pandemic prompted social isolation measures in New York City, Perino has been broadcasting remotely from her home in Bay Head."
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dana Perino. |
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Dana Perino |
Political offices | ||
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Preceded by Tony Snow |
White House Press Secretary 2007–2009 |
Succeeded by Robert Gibbs |