Scott Horsley

Scott Horsley is a White House correspondent for NPR News. He reports on the policy and politics of the Obama Administration, with a special emphasis on economic issues.

The 2012 campaign is the third presidential contest Horsley has covered for NPR. He previously reported on Senator John McCain's White House bid in 2008 and Senator John Kerry's campaign in 2004. Thanks to this experience, Horsley has become an expert in the motel shampoo offerings of various battleground states.

Horsley took up the White House beat after serving as a San Diego-based business correspondent for NPR where he covered fast food, gasoline prices, and the California electricity crunch of 2000. He reported from the Pentagon during the early phases of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Before joining NPR in 2001, Horsley was a reporter for member station KPBS-FM, where he received numerous honors, including a Public Radio News Directors' award for coverage of the California energy crisis.

Earlier in his career, Horsley worked as a reporter for WUSF-FM in Tampa, Florida, and as a news writer and reporter for commercial radio stations in Boston and Concord, New Hampshire. Horsley began his professional career as a production assistant for NPR's Morning Edition.

Horsley earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and an MBA from San Diego State University.

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Politics
1:00 am
Fri March 23, 2012

Obama: 'Brain Power' Key To Curbing Oil Dependency

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

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Energy
12:00 pm
Thu March 22, 2012

Obama Pitches Oil And Pipeline In Oklahoma

The second day of President Obama's all-of-the-above energy tour brought him to Oklahoma.

Politics
1:00 am
Thu March 22, 2012

Obama Showcases His Energy Policy On 2-Day Tour

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

President Obama visits Oklahoma today, talking of speeding construction for a major oil pipeline. Yesterday, he visited a solar panel farm in Nevada. Those were just two of the stops on a presidential effort to defend his energy policies. He's under pressure from Republicans because of rising gas prices.

And we start our coverage with NPR's Scott Horsley.

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It's All Politics
5:42 am
Thu March 15, 2012

Obama's Unofficial Ambassador To The Middle Class — V.P. Biden — Hits Ohio

Credit Phil Sears / AP
Vice President Joe Biden poses with an uncooperative baby at a speech in Tallahassee, Fla., on Feb. 6. On Thursday, he's in Ohio to begin a series of speeches aimed at framing the presidential race.

Vice President Joe Biden wears a lot of different hats in the Obama administration. He's a longtime Senate insider who can negotiate with Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. He's a foreign policy veteran who helped to lead the transition in Iraq.

And one other thing to keep in mind, whenever there's idle political gossip about replacing Biden on the ticket with Hillary Cinton: He serves as a kind of White House ambassador to the middle class.

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Election 2012
1:00 am
Thu March 15, 2012

Biden Speeches To Frame Election Debate

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

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Economy
2:56 am
Sat March 10, 2012

Job Trend: More Than A Blip, 'But We Can't Stop'

Credit Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images
President Obama speaks after touring Rolls-Royce Crosspointe engineering plant in Virginia on Friday. Obama declared America "will thrive again" after another encouraging report on jobs growth.

The American job market is still a long way from healthy, but its pulse feels a lot stronger now that it did six months ago. The Labor Department says employers added 227,000 workers to their payrolls in February, a solid — if not spectacular — performance. It continues a trend that suggests a genuine recovery, not a temporary blip.

The unemployment rate held steady at 8.3 percent, even as nearly 500,000 people joined the workforce.

Improvement in the job market is a boon for President Obama as he tries to hold onto his own job in November.

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Politics
2:00 am
Wed March 7, 2012

Obama Counters Republican Strategies On Iran

President Obama held a wide-ranging news conference Tuesday. He bluntly challenged Republican critics of his Iran policy — saying the stakes are too high to let politics intrude. The news conference was designed to steal some of the spotlight from GOP presidential hopefuls on Super Tuesday.

Presidential Race
12:57 am
Tue March 6, 2012

Obama Campaign Ramps Up Efforts Early In Virginia

Credit Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images
President Barack Obama speaks to students at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia, on February 13, 2012. Obama's campaign is ramping up efforts in Virginia in what is sure to be a battleground state in the general election.

While Republican candidates continue to slug it out for their party's White House nomination, President Obama is getting a head start on the general election.

Obama's grassroots campaign is already hard at work with volunteers hosting house parties and staffing phone banks to find and mobilize the president's supporters. The campaign has opened five offices in Virginia, and that's not counting the basement of Sue Langley's house in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Vienna, where more than a dozen volunteers assembled this past weekend.

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The Impact of War
1:00 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

Iraq Veterans Looking For Practical Assistance

On Wednesday evening, President Obama is expected to host a dinner at the White House honoring veterans of the Iraq War. Veterans still face challenges after their homecoming, including a higher-than-average unemployment rate.

Mitt Romney
10:02 am
Fri February 24, 2012

From George Romney To Mitt, A Shrinking Tax Rate

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 8:00 am

Mitt Romney gave a major economic speech Friday, in which he stressed his plan to lower personal income taxes.

Romney's own taxes became an issue last month, when he acknowledged paying a lower tax rate than many middle-class families.

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