Exclusive: Margaret Brennan Goes In-Depth on Moderating the Top-Rated Sunday News Show

Photo via CBS

Watching Margaret Brennan interrogate Secretary of State Antony Blinken over tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine can be a nerve-racking affair.

Brennan, the moderator of Face the Nation, is relentless in her questioning, and knows exactly where to press. Blinken, a career diplomat, is careful with his phrasing, well aware that a misplaced word could have global consequences.

I asked Brennan, my guest on this week’s episode of The Interview, if she ever worried that one of her questions could lead to an escalation between world powers.

“You do have to think a lot about phrasing,” she said, adding that her guests are also “extremely careful,” particularly ones like Blinken.

“They’re not just speaking to the United States,” she said. “They are very aware that the Kremlin is watching this. In Kyiv they’re watching this.”

But journalists’ questions can have positive results as well.

She recalled a time when she served as a State Department correspondent covering then-Secretary of State John Kerry in the wake of a horrific chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed more than 1,400 people.

As the Obama administration struggled to make a diplomatic breakthrough with Syria and its Russian backers, Brennan asked Kerry if there was any way to avoid conflict in the country.

“The way John Kerry answered that question created a diplomatic opening,” Brennan recalled. “John Kerry has written about this in his books after the fact… And he explains that the way he chose to answer that question created an opening for Russia to say, ‘Let’s take you up on that diplomatic offer.'”

“So it was kind of incredible to me to see that happen,” she continued. “It was an answer to a question.”

As of February, Brennan will have been the moderator of Face the Nation for four years, an impressive run that has kept the famed 67-year-old show at the top of the ratings pile.

It’s not hard to see why Brennan has remained at the helm: not only does she draw a bigger audience than the competition (NBC’s Meet the Press on NBC, ABC’s This Week, and Fox News Sunday) she remains one of the best interviewers on television, thanks in no small part to a career covering foreign affairs and financial news.

Her success moderating Face the Nation led, last year, to a new name for one of the oldest shows on television: Face the Nation With Margaret Brennan.

“It’s an incredible honor,” she said of the name change. “I’ve always felt really responsible for what we do on air. And I have spent a lot of stomach lining over the years worrying about how we approach things, preparing for things, talking through them. So I do feel like I’ve been personally very invested in this show and it’s a reflection of that.”

The job of moderating a Sunday show like Face the Nation is not a one-day affair. Brennan and a team of producers, researchers, and a booker work throughout the week to determine the issues that matter and how to tackle them.

Last Sunday, Brennan grilled Blinken on Ukraine-Russia, spoke to Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and held a focus group with six Americans on Covid and the economy.

I also asked Brennan about facing partisan criticism from pundits on cable news and elsewhere. Recently, Fox News host Tucker Carlson absurdly claimed that notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is a “better guide to truth” than journalists like Brennan.

“I heard about it a few days later,” Brennan said of Carlson’s commentary. “I didn’t know when it happened. I laughed, to be honest, that was my response. Does it bother me? No. The statement does not bother me.”

Brennan, who grew up in the town next to Newtown, Connecticut, was visibly affected as she noted that Jones spread conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook shooting. (Jones was recently found guilty by a court of lying about the victims of Sandy Hook.)

“And on a very serious note, given where I am from, given where I grew up, given the time I spent covering Sandy Hook, given the family members that I have who live still in Newtown and were first responders that day, just being a human and a mom, I take that very seriously when people reflect on Sandy Hook,” Brennan said. “So in my mind, if people make things up about a horrible tragedy and the massacre of children, that’s just — I don’t need to remark on that.”

Moments after our interview, Brennan dashed off to a press conference with the secretary of state. She’ll be back in the anchor chair for Face the Nation this Sunday.

Download the full episode here, and subscribe to The Interview on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read more coverage of The Interview on Mediaite.

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