Sam Donaldson

ByABC News
December 10, 2008, 6:03 PM

— -- Sam Donaldson, now retired from full-time work at ABC News, is a 42-year ABC News veteran who served two appointments as chief White House correspondent for ABC News from 1977 to 1989 and again from January 1998 to August 1999, covering Presidents Carter, Reagan and Clinton. Donaldson also co-anchored "PrimeTime Live" with Diane Sawyer from August 1989 until it merged with "20/20" in 1999. He co-anchored the ABC News Sunday morning broadcast "This Week With Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts" from December 1996 to September 2002.

From October 2001 to May 2004, Donaldson hosted "The Sam Donaldson Show -- Live in America," a daily news/talk radio program broadcast on ABC News Radio affiliates across the country. the show tackled the day's top stories and important issues -- getting comments from newsmakers, engaging listener calls and of course inserting his own experiences and opinions.

Donaldson's most recent assignment at ABC News was as anchor of "Politics Live" on ABC News Now, the network's 24-hour digital outlet. The daily half-hour show is an unscripted dialogue with numerous guests and commentators analyzing the top political news stories of the day. Donaldson was also a frequent contributor to ABCNews.com, taping video essays exclusively for the Web site and writing biweekly political commentaries.

While Donaldson has retired from full-time work at the network, he will continue to appear frequently as a contributor on the "This Week" roundtable and contribute to ABC News Radio.

Joining ABC News in 1967 as a Capitol Hill correspondent, Donaldson covered such major events as the Vietnam War, Watergate, the House Judiciary Committee impeachment investigation in 1974 and the Gulf War in 1991. The ABC News veteran reported on every national political convention since 1964 with the exception of the 1992 Republican Convention in Houston. He reported on the presidential campaigns of Barry Goldwater, Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Michael Dukakis.

Donaldson also reported as an eyewitness on Spiro Agnew's no contest plea in a Baltimore courtroom that forced Agnew to resign from the vice presidency. And as an eyewitness to the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan's life in 1981, Donaldson delivered the first report of the event on any broadcast medium of that event on the ABC radio network.

Donaldson anchored "World News Sunday" for 10 years from 1979 to 1989. During this time, the ABC News veteran was also a regular interviewer on "This Week With David Brinkley," in addition to filing on other platforms.