Stephen F. Hayes
Stephen F. Hayes is the editor in chief of The Weekly Standard and a FOX News Contributor, where he is a regular member of the "Fox News All-Stars" on the network's signature news broadcast, Special Report with Bret Baier. He is the author of two New York Times best sellers: The Connection: How al Qaeda’s Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America and Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President.
His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Reason, National Review and many other publications. Hayes has written extensively about national politics, international affairs and the country’s current political leadership.
Before joining FOX, Hayes was part of CNN’s “Best Political Team on Television,” which won a Peabody Award for its coverage of the 2008 elections. Other media appearances have included: NPR’s Talk of the Nation, TODAY, Good Morning America, Meet the Press, ABC’s “This Week,” FOX News Sunday, CNN's "State of the Union," The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, The McLaughlin Group, HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Hayes is a native of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and a graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He studied public policy at Georgetown University and received an MS from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. He previously worked as a senior writer at National Journal's Hotline and as director of the Fund for American Studies' Institute on Political Journalism at Georgetown University. He lives near Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife and four kids.
Stories by Stephen F. Hayes
Spinning the bin Laden Documents
Ned Price isn't right.
4:00 AM, Nov 10, 2017
Ned Price is not happy. The former CIA analyst and National Security Council official was at the center of the Obama administration’s efforts to mislead the American people about the continuing threat from al Qaeda and its affiliates and about the rogue states whose support allowed it to regain its strength and expand. With the release on November 1 of 470,000 documents, images, videos, audio, and computer files captured during the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, th Read more
The Big Reveal: The Story of How 470,000 Documents from Osama Bin Laden's Compound Finally Got Into the Open
The CIA has finally released 470,000 files recovered from the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. Here's why it took so long.
3:10 AM, Nov 03, 2017
On the penultimate day of the Obama administration, less than 24 hours before the president would vacate the White House, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a press release meant to put to rest what had been a pesky issue for his office. “Closing the Book on Bin Laden: Intelligence Community Releases Final Abbottabad Documents,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) announced. “Today marks the end of a two-and-a-half-year effort to declassify several hund Read more
Getting to No: How the Trump Administration Decided to Decertify the Iran Nuclear Deal
From the Oct. 16, 2017, issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
4:00 AM, Oct 06, 2017
Donald Trump was frustrated. Five days earlier, on July 12, 2017, the president had decided for the second time in his young administration that he would certify to Congress Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal he’d promised as a candidate to dismantle. He wasn’t happy with the decision he’d made, and he was angry about the process that led to it. His top national security aides had presented him with a narrow range of options that did not include leaving the deal—or even simply “decertifying Read more
Hayes: Is the Taliban a Terrorist Group or a Partner for Peace?
The Trump administration has two, irreconcilable views on the Taliban.
10:45 AM, Aug 22, 2017
Donald Trump provided some much-needed clarity about his plan for Afghanistan in a speech to the nation on Monday. The United States won’t be withdrawing anytime soon. We won’t announce in advance our departure dates. We’re not doing nation-building. Afghan security forces will be the offensive lead in the fight against terrorists. Pakistan faces real consequences if leaders there continue to play both sides in this 16-year war. Such clarity is welcome and some of what Trump announced has the Read more
Hayes: Where Are Trump's 'Very Fine People'?
6:47 AM, Aug 17, 2017
Around dinnertime on August 14, President Donald Trump tweeted about the “truly bad people” who played a role in the Charlottesville race riots. Less than 24 hours later he highlighted some “very fine people” who were there, too. The “bad people?” Perhaps not surprisingly, Trump was referring to members of the news media, whom he’s previously labeled the “enemy of the American people.” And the “very fine people?” They were in Charlottesville simply to protest the removal of a statue, Trump s Read more
Tuesday Morning Quarterback to Relaunch at The Weekly Standard
Gregg Easterbrook has provided detailed analysis of America's most popular sport for two decades.
12:42 PM, Aug 15, 2017
Big news: We are pleased to announce the relaunch of Tuesday Morning Quarterback, the celebrated weekly NFL column by Gregg Easterbrook. Easterbrook will debut on THE WEEKLY STANDARD website next Tuesday, Aug 22. TMQ has developed a loyal following over the past two decades as Easterbrook has provided detailed analyses of America's most popular sport and its professional league, writing at Slate , ESPN.com and the New York Times . Chuck Todd, moderator of Meet the Press , says TMQ "is the b Read more
Hayes: Why Won't Trump Denounce White Supremacists?
Why won't President Trump be as specifically and unequivocally critical of white supremacists as he is of the media?
10:28 PM, Aug 12, 2017
Donald Trump is an unflinching critic of anything and everything he finds un-American. On Saturday, he flinched. We know by now what it looks like when Donald Trump wants to condemn someone. Brit Hume is “a dope” and a “know-nothing.” Mika Brzezinski is “dumb as a rock” and “crazy.” Bill and Hillary Clinton were “the real predators.” Ted Cruz is a “wacko” and “weak.” Chuck Todd—“pathetic” and “very dishonest.” James Comey—“nutjob.” Intel leakers are “low-lifes” and Democrats are “phony hypoc Read more
Playing Defense
3:00 AM, Aug 04, 2017
Two days after the 2016 election, we had this to say about Donald Trump’s stunning victory: “We opposed him early and often, and we didn’t think he’d win. We lamented his ignorance, criticized his crudity, and catalogued his untruthfulness. We were troubled by his foreign policy noninterventionism, his antitrade demagoguery, by his lack of discipline and judgment, and also by the likelihood that he would disappoint far too many of his enthusiastic followers, especially those whose policy views Read more
Derek Harvey Out at NSC
One of the smartest minds on Iraq gets the boot.
11:50 AM, Jul 27, 2017
Derek Harvey, a top Middle East adviser to President Donald Trump, has been fired from his position at the National Security Council, effective today. Harvey, a longtime intelligence professional with vast experience in the Middle East, was a key player in the Trump administration’s Iran policy review and its policy development in Syria, Iraq and other regional hotspots. The dismissal of this leading policy adviser to the president comes amid intensifying speculation about a coming broad White Read more
The Real Story Behind Mooch's War on Reince
Anthony Scaramucci just accused Reince Priebus of a felony. For no reason.
5:38 AM, Jul 27, 2017
Anthony Scaramucci has had some difficulty over the course of his first few days as White House communications director, but as he wrapped up his first week on the job he managed to provide an unambiguous answer to one question on the minds of millions of Americans watching the Trump presidency with equal parts curiosity and horror: Yes, it can get more absurd. Late Wednesday, Scaramucci took to Twitter to announce that he’d be going to the FBI to report a felonious leak of his financial dis Read more
Trump Plans to Certify that Iran Is in Compliance With Nuclear Deal (Updated)
Sources say the president is going to recertify the Iranian nuclear deal he once promised to dismantle.
10:11 AM, Jul 13, 2017
President Donald Trump plans to recertify Iranian compliance with the Iran nuclear deal before the congressionally mandated deadline to do so on Monday, according to four sources with knowledge of his thinking on the issue. The decision, which continues to provide Iran sanctions relief for their alleged fulfillment of the terms of the deal, comes after an intense internal debate about the pros and cons of recertification and just days after leading hawks on Capitol Hill urged the president to re Read more
Trump Caves to Putin
What President Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin tells us about the future of Russian-American affairs.
10:20 PM, Jul 07, 2017
If Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s readout of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin is a preview of the Trump administration’s approach to Russia, it’s going to be a rough three and a half years. In a diplomatic depantsing that will have repercussions far beyond Russia, Tillerson’s comments did more to further Russia’s interests than Russian propaganda outlets could have possibly hoped to accomplish themselves. Tillerson told reporters that Trump and Putin “acknowledged the challenges Read more
Is the Special Counsel Just an Act of Revenge?
If Comey thought Trump obstructed justice, he could have looked into it himself.
10:09 AM, Jun 09, 2017
Washington is still trying to make sense of James Comey's congressional testimony yesterday. My immediate reaction is here . A very smart lawyer—a friend of THE WEEKLY STANDARD and no fan of Donald Trump—emails this sharp analysis, which questions the reasons for and legitimacy of the special counsel investigation. Is there any fair reading of Comey's leak of the memo that isn't just a naked act of vengeance? He says he wanted to spur the appointment of a special counsel. But the Russia inve Read more
Comey v. Trump
2:15 AM, Jun 09, 2017
It's not hard to understand why Donald Trump was frustrated with FBI director James Comey. In the weeks before the inauguration and the weeks that followed, Comey repeatedly told Trump that he was not under investigation as part of the FBI's probe into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election. But when Trump urged Comey to say so publicly, to help quell a steady stream of media reports suggesting otherwise, the director refused. Top White House officials took up the cause, lobbying Comey Read more
Trump Tweet Led to Special Counsel
Now will he put his phone away?
1:12 PM, Jun 08, 2017
A Donald Trump tweet is the reason we have a special counsel investigation into Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election and possible collusion between Trump associates and Russians, according to testimony from former FBI Director James Comey. Comey testified Thursday that he shared with a friend a memo Comey had written about a conversation he'd had with Trump so that the friend could share the memo with a reporter–all for the purpose of triggering a special counsel investigation. And Read more
Winning the 9/11 Wars
2:30 AM, May 26, 2017
On April 30, 2012, Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser made a bold prediction: It was possible to envision a world in which al Qaeda's central leadership would "no longer [be] relevant" to the United States and the organization itself would be eliminated. "If the decade before 9/11 was the time of al Qaeda's rise, and the decade after 9/11 was the time of its decline, then I believe this decade will be the one that sees its demise," boasted John Brennan. This wasn't an analytical asse Read more
Release the Notes
Trump can, and should, tell us what was said in the Oval Office.
12:02 PM, May 16, 2017
Washington is afire once again with a controversy pitting President Donald Trump against the U.S. intelligence community and the media. The allegations are deadly serious: In an Oval Office meeting, the president disclosed highly classified information from a friendly intelligence service to an adversary. The White House, in a series of carefully worded statements, denied the claims, first reported by the Washington Post and later confirmed by five other news outlets. "The story that cam Read more
Comey, Trump, and the GOP
2:00 AM, May 12, 2017
President Donald Trump fired James Comey just as the FBI director moved to expand and intensify the bureau's counterintelligence investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the possible collusion of Trump advisers in those efforts. That development alone ought to give pause to Republicans inclined to go to the barricades for the president. But there's more. The White House's after-the-fact explanations of the Comey firing were inconsistent and internally contrad Read more
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Corrine Brown, The Gentlewoman From Florida
From the October 30, 2000, issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
5:13 PM, May 11, 2017
Editor's note: Former Democratic representative Corrine Brown was convicted by a federal jury on 18 counts in her corruption trial Thursday. The 12-term Floridian's prosecution was related to theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fake charity. Most of the counts were related to mail, wire, and tax fraud. WEEKLY STANDARD editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes wrote about Brown's reelection campaign in 2000: a "surprisingly competitive race that gained notice" partly because, fittingly, o Read more
Believe It or Not, Syria Could Be In Even Worse Shape
Almost 10 years ago, the Israelis took out Bashar Assad's secret nuclear facility.
2:18 PM, Apr 10, 2017
Syria is a bloody mess. Its cities lie in ruins. Its antiquities have been destroyed. And the Syrian leader continues to kill his own people. The death toll may be as high as a half million people. Some 10 million Syrians have been displaced. Reporters working there have described it as "hell on earth" and the images they've provided support their portrayal. It's hard to imagine how things could be ghastlier. And yet, if not for a stealth nighttime attack a decade ago, the situation today woul Read more
A Fight Worth Having
2:50 AM, Mar 17, 2017
One day in late spring in the early days of the George W. Bush administration, FDA inspectors visited the headquarters of Sargento cheese in Plymouth, Wisconsin—a routine visit as part of the federal government's efforts to ensure the safety of the food we eat. The inspectors took samples of cheese to test for bacteria. Sargento conducted tests on cheese from the same lot. A week later, the results from both sets of tests were in—the cheese was bacteria-free. Sargento, having gotten the all-clea Read more
Trump's Wiretap Claims: What We Know and What We Don't
5:00 AM, Mar 06, 2017
I spent most of the last two days reporting out the extraordinary allegations President Donald Trump made against his predecessor, Barack Obama – that Obama had Trump's "wires tapped in Trump Tower." And I've spent many hours over the past several weeks looking into claims about ties between Trump's team and Russia and counterclaims that the entire thing is an elaborate attempt to delegitimize Trump's presidency. Let me begin with an admission, an observation, and a guess. The admission : E Read more
The Courage Deficit
1:55 AM, Mar 03, 2017
The math isn’t complicated. If the federal government doesn't reform entitlements soon, the country will face a debt crisis. There is no disputing this. It's inevitable. The only unknown is timing. And the stubborn determination of some leaders in both political parties to ignore runaway entitlement growth—the most urgent domestic challenge facing the United States—means the crisis will come sooner rather than later. According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2008 federal debt was 39 per Read more
The Flynn Affair
2:00 AM, Feb 17, 2017
Michael Flynn’s resignation as President Donald Trump's first national security adviser won't end the controversy surrounding the new administration's purported ties to Russia. Depending on which sources you consult, Flynn was either one of Vladimir Putin's stooges or a martyr to the "swamp"—the permanent bureaucracy in Washington. The truth is undoubtedly more complicated. And it's crucial that we get closer to it. Flynn had a target painted on his back long before he ever joined Trump's Whit Read more
The Final Obama Scandal
Closing the book on a deceptive narrative about the al Qaeda threat
1:15 AM, Jan 27, 2017
Less than 24 hours before the official end of the Obama presidency, while White House staffers were pulling pictures off the walls and cleaning out their desks, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) posted without fanfare another installment of the documents captured in Osama bin Laden’s compound during the May 2011 raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The press statement that accompanied the release made an unexpected declaration: This batch of newly released documents would be th Read more
A Tortured Report
1:15 AM, Jan 27, 2017
For most of last week, the report on enhanced interrogations produced by Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence dominated headlines. To the extent that there was a debate at all, it was one-sided. News coverage routinely described the findings as the “Senate torture report,” often failing even to note that it was written exclusively by Democratic staff or account for the differences between techniques used as part of the CIA program and abuses committed outside of that program. Read more
Republicans: Schumer Broke His Word on Pompeo Confirmation
An inside look at the behind-the-scenes drama.
6:00 AM, Jan 23, 2017
When President Donald Trump visited the CIA Saturday, he had hoped that CIA Director Mike Pompeo would accompany him. But when Trump arrived at the Langley, Virginia, headquarters of the Agency, he was instead accompanied by Congressman Mike Pompeo. Representative Pompeo will almost certainly be confirmed as CIA Director on Monday. And the CIA will no doubt survive two days without its new leader. But the nastiness of the partisan sniping between top Republicans and Democrats that led to the d Read more
Trump Inaugural Goes Heavy on the Populism
And Republicans should be ready when he goes light on the conservatism.
2:42 PM, Jan 20, 2017
President Donald J. Trump gave an aggressive, combative inaugural speech today, heavy on the populism and economic nationalism that energized his campaign, and virtually devoid of the themes and principles that have defined the Republican party and the conservative movement at its heart. The speech began by painting a dark picture of a very divided nation, describing “American carnage" that, he says, has resulted from policies propagated by both political parties to the detriment of the Americ Read more
Obama's Shameful Legacy
8:41 AM, Jan 18, 2017
There was a time, early in Barack Obama’s presidency, when it was considered outrageous to worry out loud that the new president might treat enemies better than allies, run down friends and elevate foes, show solidarity with anti-American leaders, maybe even release dangerous terrorists or sympathize with traitors. And here we are. Obama has accommodated leaders hostile to America, like Vladimir Putin in Russia and Bashar al-Assad in Syria. He strengthened a rogue regime in Iran and boosted Read more