February 2019

Rita Braver is a national correspondent for CBS News’ CBS SUNDAY MORNING, where she reports on everything from arts and culture to politics and foreign policy. Her assignments include a wide variety of topics, from meeting offbeat characters to discerning national trends.

Braver has interviewed presidents, cabinet secretaries and many celebrities. For CBS SUNDAY MORNING, she has done profiles of former President Bill Clinton, United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen. She has profiled authors including Phillip Roth, E.L. Doctorow and Dav Pilkey of “Captain Underpants” fame. And she has talked with entertainers such as James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen.

In recent years, Braver has also reported on national issues such as political correctness on campus and the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the United States. She has taken viewers to exhibits of famed artists such as Vermeer and Chagall, and introduced viewers to contemporary artists José Parlá and Kehinde Wiley.

Prior to joining CBS SUNDAY MORNING, Braver spent four years as CBS News’ chief White House correspondent (1993-1997), covering a broad range of foreign and domestic issues. She traveled the world on the White House beat, followed President Bill Clinton through his re-election campaign, and served as a floor reporter at the Democratic Convention. While covering the White House, she was a frequent guest, as well as a guest-host, on FACE THE NATION.

Braver spent a decade as CBS News’ chief law correspondent (1983-1993) reporting for the CBS EVENING NEWS, the “CBS Morning News,” 48 HOURS, “Street Stories” and “Public Eye.” Her beat included the U.S. Supreme Court, the Justice Department and all federal law enforcement agencies including the FBI and DEA. She covered the Iran-Contra case during the Reagan administration and the drug trial of Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry. Braver broke the story of the Walker Family Spy Ring, as well as the case of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.

Braver has won nine national Emmy Awards including one for investigative reporting and two for covering the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. She received the Joan Barone Award presented by the Congressional Radio and Television Correspondents Association and the Star Award from American Women in Radio and Television. She was also named an Outstanding Mother by the National Mothers’ Day Committee.

Braver grew up at CBS News, joining the Washington Bureau in 1972 as a news desk editor. She began her career in journalism at WWL-TV in New Orleans. Braver is married to attorney Robert Barnett and is the proud grandmother of three. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin.