Leland Vittert

Vittert was born on August 31, 1982 in Illinois.[13] Vittert earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.[2][3] He also completed The General Course, a one-year study abroad program at the London School of Economics.[2][3]

Prior to joining FNC, Vittert anchored the weekend news at KDVR-TV in Denver, Colorado and was a reporter for WFTV-TV in Orlando, Florida. He also at KATV-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas, KNWA-TV in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and WMTV-TV in Madison, Wisconsin.[2]

As a young reporter, Vittert received an Emmy Award nomination for clearing a police officer wrongly accused of rape.[2][7]

Vittert's coverage of the Freddie Gray riots in Baltimore was praised by Mediaite and The Daily Caller.[14][15][16] According to Mediaite, Vittert “made his mark…by standing among protesters, facing a silent line of riot police, while interviewing residents and demonstrators affected by the story in various ways. He [broke] news about the Baltimore mayor's alleged stand-down orders for police, and [had] tense question-and-answer exchanges with lawmakers and public figures throughout the city.”[14][17][16]

Vittert in 2011

Arriving in the Middle East in 2010, Vittert began following the Arab Spring.[6] In 2011, he was one of the few reporters live on the ground in Cairo's Tahrir Square on the night that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak left power.[6] Vittert subsequently traveled to Libya during the first days of the country's revolution, where he reported on Muammar Gadaffi's counterattack and later from the besieged city of Misurata.[18][19]

Vittert covered Operation Pillar of Cloud, the 2012 war between Israel and Hamas.[20][21][22] He has interviewed Muhammad al-Zawahiri, the brother of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.[23][24][22]

Before coming to Washington, D.C. in 2014, Vittert spent a month in Eastern Ukraine as Russian-backed militias took over parts of the country.[25][26]

While covering the George Floyd protests outside the White House in Washington, D.C., Vittert and his crew were attacked by protesters and later chased away from the area.[27] In an interview on Cavuto Live the following day, Vittert stated that he and his crew were assaulted after a protester realized they were employed by Fox News.[28][29]

Described as “dapper and well-spoken,” Vittert won Westword's “Best Hair on a TV Anchor Award” in 2007.[3][8] His sister, Liberty Vittert, is a television chef and professor of data science at Harvard University.[30][31][32]