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Tom DeFrank
Keynote Fee : $5,001 - $10,000 plus expenses Fee Note Travels From: DC |
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A Tale of Seven PresidentsOne of Washington’s most respected President-watchers, Tom DeFrank has covered every chief executive since Richard Nixon. He was Newsweek’s White House correspondent for 25 years and still spends most of his reporting week focusing on the Presidency, especially the Bush White House. This lecture combines provocative and unconventional insights into the Presidency with crowd-pleasing anecdotes into a presentation one recent client termed “balanced, extremely well done…..informative and entertaining…...a delight.”
All About W: What You Don't Know About the 43rd PresidentTom DeFrank has been interviewing and reporting on George W. Bush since 1987. In 1988 and 1992, he spent literally dozens of hours interviewing the future President in connection with Newsweek’s special election issues. He spent time with Bush at his office in Dallas, his father’s campaign headquarters and the White House in Washington, and at Texas Rangers baseball games. Those repeated encounters filled dozens of notebooks and have provided DeFrank with unusually keen insights into Bush’s personality, operating style, likes and dislikes, and views on everything from governing to his famous parents. His extensive professional relationship with the new President is the basis for this highly anecdotal lecture.
Speaker Information
One of Washington's most respected President-watchers, Thomas M. DeFrank is a veteran political journalist and author. As Washington bureau chief for The New York Daily News since 1996, he directs coverage of the nation’s capital for the country’s second-largest metropolitan daily newspaper.
DeFrank’s reporting has been praised as “riveting” by The New Times, which ranked him as one of the country’s best political ghostwriters. Former President Gerald R. Ford calls him “one of the finest journalists I have ever known. Everyone I know feels the same way: you are fair, trustworthy and professional.”
Newsweek’s senior White House correspondent for a quarter century, DeFrank also served as deputy chief of the magazine’s Washington bureau for twelve years. Assigned to the White House beat since 1970, DeFrank has reported on the activities of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton. He is second only to Helen Thomas of United Press International in terms of longevity on the White House beat. The 2004 presidential campaign was the tenth DeFrank has covered in 36 years as a Washington reporter. He has reported on the resignation of one President, the impeachment of a second, and was an eyewitness to two assassination attempts against a third.
DeFrank has been a student of the Presidency since 1968, when he took his first presidential trip with Lyndon Johnson as a Newsweek intern. He traveled extensively with Richard Nixon from 1970 to 1972 and was assigned to cover Vice President Gerald Ford in the fall of 1973. A few months before Nixon’s resignation, DeFrank was reassigned to the White House and remained when Ford became President in August 1974. He was an eyewitness to both assassination attempts against Ford in 1975.
Having covered every Presidential election since 1968, DeFrank has also covered fifteen Soviet-American summits, beginning with the historic 1975 Ford-Brezhnev meeting at Vladivostok. He has traveled to all 50 states and 46 countries as a White House reporter and is a former president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. Also reporting on congressional and military affairs, DeFrank covered the return of U.S. prisoners of war from Vietnam at Clark Air Base in the Philippines in 1973. He also reported extensively on the Persian Gulf War, traveling to Saudi Arabia with President Bush in November 1990 and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and General Colin Powell in December 1990.
DeFrank is the co-author of Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms, the bestselling memoir of controversial Republican political consultant Ed Rollins. He also co-authored The Politics of Diplomacy, the memoirs of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III; and Quest for the Presidency 1992, a critically- acclaimed, behind-the-scenes look at the Clinton-Bush election.
DeFrank has appeared on several public affairs television programs, including "Washington Week in Review," "Larry King Live," "Crossfire," "Talk Back Live," "The Charlie Rose Show," "Reliable Sources," "CNN Inside Politics," "The Beltway Boys," FOX News, and C-SPAN.
The only newsmagazine correspondent to win both of the White House Correspondents’ Association awards for distinguished Presidential reporting, DeFrank has also shared in several other reporting awards, including the National Magazine Award for his coverage of the 1992 Presidential campaign, and the Overseas Press Club’s award for his reporting of the 1987 Reagan-Gorbachev summit.
DeFrank was on active duty at the Pentagon from 1968 to 1970 as a public affairs officer with the office of the Secretary of Defense. Before joining Newsweek, he was a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Bryan (Texas) Daily Eagle, and Minneapolis Star. A native of Arlington, Texas, DeFrank is a 1967 high honors graduate of Texas A&M University, where he edited the campus newspaper, and has a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota.
Testimonials
”Congratulations on your outstanding presentation.... Your knowledge of the subject, stage presence, and your willingness to step in at the last moment will not be forgotten. The summary of evaluations showed 100% of returns rated you 'Good to Excellent'."
- Forging Industry Association
”I've been hearing rave reviews from our attendees and staff about what an outstanding, entertaining, and engaging speaker you are. They appreciated your anecdotes as well as commentary on the recent election.”
- Washington Public Utility Districts Association