George Will

George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American libertarian conservative writer and political commentator, who writes regular columns for The Washington Post and provides commentary for NewsNation.

Will was born on May 4, 1941, in Champaign, Illinois, to Louise (née Hendrickson) and Frederick L. Will.

His father was a professor of philosophy, specializing in epistemology, at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Will attended University Laboratory High School of Urbana, Illinois, where he graduated in 1959.

Will originally had left wing political views, but his views shifted toward conservatism during his studies at Oxford, especially after visiting Communist-controlled East Berlin in the mid-1960s.

After high school, Will went to Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, graduating in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion.

He then went to England and attended Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics and received a bachelor's degree (promoted to a master's per tradition).

Will then did doctoral study in political science at Princeton University, receiving a PhD in 1968 with a dissertation entitled "Beyond the Reach of Majorities: Closed Questions in the Open Society", alluding to a famous phrase from Justice Robert H. Jackson’s majority opinion in the landmark 1943 Supreme Court case West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.

From 1970 to 1972, he served on the staff of Republican Senator Gordon Allott of Colorado.

Will then taught political philosophy at the James Madison College of Michigan State University, and at the University of Toronto.

Will served as an editor for National Review from 1972 to 1978.

He joined The Washington Post Writers Group in 1974, writing a syndicated biweekly column, which became widely circulated among newspapers across the country and continues today.

his column is syndicated to about 450 newspapers.

In 1976 he became a contributing editor for Newsweek, writing a biweekly backpage column until 2011.

Will won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977.

Will won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for "distinguished commentary on a variety of topics" in 1977.

Often combining factual reporting with conservative commentary, Will's columns are known for their erudite vocabulary, allusions to political philosophers, and frequent references to baseball.

Will has also written two bestselling books on the game of baseball, three books on political philosophy, and has published eleven compilations of his columns for The Washington Post and Newsweek and of various book reviews and lectures.

Will was also a regular panelist on television's Agronsky & Company from 1977 through 1984.

A former member of the Republican Party, Will was a close ally of Ronald Reagan during his presidential campaign in 1980.

He assisted Reagan with debate preparation, and was later falsely accused by former President Jimmy Carter of providing Reagan with a top secret briefing book in a scandal known as Debategate, in an allegation Carter later retracted.

In later years, he became a critic of Republican politicians, including Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Donald Trump.

Prior to joining Fox News, beginning in the early 1980s, Will was a news analyst for ABC News and was a founding member on the panel of ABC's This Week with David Brinkley in 1981, now titled This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Will was a panelist on This Week until his departure from ABC News.

Will helped Ronald Reagan prepare for his 1980 debate against Jimmy Carter.

Immediately after the debate, Will—not yet a member of the ABC News staff—appeared on ABC's Nightline.

He was introduced by host Ted Koppel, who said: "It's my understanding that you met for some time yesterday with Governor Reagan", and that Will "never made any secret of his affection" for the Republican candidate.

Will did not explicitly disclose that he had assisted Reagan's debate preparation, or been present during it.

He went on to praise Reagan's "thoroughbred" performance, saying his "game plan worked well. I don't think he was very surprised."

In 1986, The Wall Street Journal called him "perhaps the most powerful journalist in America."

He taught at Harvard University in 1995 and again in 1998.

In 2004 and again in 2005, Carter accused Will of giving the Reagan campaign a top-secret briefing book stolen from Carter's office before the 1980 debate.

In a 2005 syndicated column, Will called his role in Reagan's debate preparation "inappropriate" but denied any role in stealing the briefing book.

In response to Will's column, Carter wrote a letter to The Washington Post retracting his accusations.

From 2013 to 2017, Will was a contributor for Fox News.

Will's disapproval of Trump's presidential campaign led him to become an independent in 2016, and he subsequently voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

On Sunday, March 19, 2017, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd welcomed Will back as a panelist, stating he had been absent from the program since 1981 and that his return would mark his 52nd appearance.

On May 8, 2017, Will was announced as an MSNBC and NBC News political contributor, in which he provided regular political input on shows such as Today, Morning Joe, and The 11th Hour.

On December 3, 2020, Will received the National Society for Newspaper Columnists 2020 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award, in partnership with the Society of Professional Journalists.

Since January, 2022, Will has been a senior political contributor at NewsNation.