David Muir biography

David Muir is the anchor and managing editor of ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, the most-watched newscast in the U.S., and co-anchor of ABC’s 20/20. Since joining ABC News, Muir has spent more than two decades reporting from all over the world on the major stories of our time with global dispatches from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Ukraine, Tahrir Square, Mogadishu, Gaza, Guantanamo, Fukushima, Beirut, Amman, and the Syrian border.

Muir’s reporting has been honored with multiple Emmy awards and Edward R. Murrow awards, and the Society of Professional Journalists has honored Muir for his reporting overseas. Muir’s reporting on climate change has been recognized with the prestigious George Polk Award, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award. In 2024, Muir was honored with the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Muir’s exclusive interviews with world leaders generate global headlines. Muir traveled to Kyiv for an exclusive interview with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the beginning of Ukraine’s counter-offensive, a crucial point in the war. Muir was also the first American anchor to interview Zelenskyy after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Muir has conducted numerous exclusive interviews with President Biden. At the White House in December 2021, Muir pressed Biden on whether the U.S. was prepared for the Covid surge, making major headlines. In February 2023, Muir conducted two interviews with President Biden, one in Warsaw on U.S. support for Ukraine. Muir traveled to Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, interviewing President Biden and documenting WWII heroes who made the trip back.

Previously, Muir conducted the first interview with then-President Donald Trump in the White House and was the first network anchor to interview President Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic. Muir secured the first joint interview with then-Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris weeks before the 2020 election.

Muir traveled to Afghanistan to interview the top U.S. commander amid talks with the Taliban and traveled to Iraq to interview top American military leaders in the fight against ISIS. Muir interviewed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani after the U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal.

Muir secured the exclusive interview with then-President Barack Obama during the former president’s historic trip to Cuba. Muir landed a historic sit-down with Pope Francis inside the Vatican, moderating the first-ever Vatican town hall, Pope Francis and the People. Muir conducted the town hall in Spanish. Muir also moderated a town hall with President Obama, The President and the People: A National Conversation about race, policing and efforts to bridge the divide, earning an Emmy.

Muir has moderated multiple Democratic and Republican Presidential Primary debates and has conducted numerous interviews with presidential candidates, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It was during one of Muir’s exclusive interviews with Secretary Clinton she apologized to the American people for her use of a private e-mail server.

Muir has reported numerous in-depth specials for ABC News. Most recently, Muir reported from South Sudan on The Children of the Floods, and from Southern Madagascar on The Children of Climate Change, bringing light to what the U.N. warns is climate-driven famine. Muir’s reporting on climate change earned the George Polk award and raised a record $9 million for the World Food Programme.

Muir reported The Children of Auschwitz, documenting the journey back for Holocaust survivors returning to Poland 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, earning an Emmy for his work. Muir reported Return to Normandy, profiling World War II veterans who stormed the beaches of Normandy returning to France 75 years after changing the course of history.

Muir spent more than a year reporting Breaking Point: Heroin in America and Flashpoint: Refugees in America. Muir was the first American journalist to anchor from the scene of Europe’s refugee crisis, reporting from the Hungarian/Serbian border. Muir also reported from the Syrian border on child refugees of war. Muir gained rare access to Guantanamo prison and traveled to Amman, Jordan to report on the vetting of refugees coming to the United States.

A magna cum laude graduate of Ithaca College, Muir also attended the Institute on Political Journalism at Georgetown University and studied at the University of Salamanca in Spain. Prior to joining ABC News, Muir distinguished himself as an award-winning anchor and reporter at WCVB-TV in Boston, and WTVH-TV in his hometown of Syracuse, NY.

David Muir: 27 memorable reporting moments

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ABC News' David Muir reported from an informal settlement in the outskirts of Soweto, in Johannesburg, South Africa, as First Lady Michelle Obama was in the country for her first visit with Nelson Mandela.

Bruno Roeber/ABC News