Brakkton Booker
Brakkton Booker is a National Desk reporter based in Washington, DC.
He covers a wide range of topics including issues related to federal social safety net programs and news around the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
His reporting takes him across the country covering natural disasters, like hurricanes and flooding, as well as tracking trends in regional politics and in state governments, particularly on issues of race.
Following the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, Booker's reporting broadened to include a focus on young activists pushing for changes to federal and state gun laws, including the March For Our Lives rally and national school walkouts.
Prior to joining NPR's national desk, Booker spent five years as a producer/reporter for NPR's political unit. He spent most to the 2016 presidential campaign cycle covering the contest for the GOP nomination and was the lead producer from the Trump campaign headquarters on election night. Booker served in a similar capacity from the Louisville campaign headquarters of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2014. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he produced pieces and filed dispatches from the Republican and Democratic National conventions, as well as from President Obama's reelection site in Chicago.
In the summer of 2014, Booker took a break from politics to report on the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.
Booker started his career as a show producer working on nearly all of NPR's magazine programs, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and former news and talk show Tell Me More, where he produced the program's signature Barbershop segment.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Howard University and was a 2015 Kiplinger Fellow. When he's not on the road, Booker enjoys discovering new brands of whiskey and working on his golf game.
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Taylor was shot and killed in her apartment by Louisville police last March. "I can't believe it's a year later and we're still just asking people to do the right thing," her mother said recently. -
The Republican from Nebraska speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep about the impeachment of former President Donald Trump, the future of the GOP and working with the Biden administration. -
The cremated remains arrived with ceremony in a motorcade with members of Sicknick's family and were carried by colleagues into the Capitol. His urn rests on a pedestal next to a U.S. flag. -
Lindell, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, had been using his Twitter account to spread disinformation about the 2020 presidential election, including false claims of voter fraud. -
"With the radical left now in control of Washington, your governor is your last line of defense," Sanders said in an announcement video. She was White House press secretary for President Donald Trump. -
Austin's near-unanimous confirmation came despite concerns raised on both sides of the aisle that he hadn't been out of uniform for the legally mandated minimum seven-year period. -
Austin, a retired four-star Army general, served in the military for 40 years including as the first Black general to lead U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East. -
Twitter has suspended more than 70,000 accounts spreading the QAnon conspiracy theory since Friday. Facebook is removing content with the phrase "stop the steal." -
Roy Austin Jr. will fill the new position, which was created by Facebook after a scathing audit released in July 2020 concluded the company's policies had caused "serious setbacks for civil rights." -
Kenosha, Wis., police Officer Rusten Sheskey, who is white, shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times in the back in August after Blake slowly walked away from officers and toward a parked vehicle.
