Hugh Hewitt: Education, Career, and Influence
Hugh Hewitt is an American conservative political commentator, lawyer, law professor, broadcast journalist, and author. His career spans service in the Reagan Administration, leadership roles in the Nixon Foundation, professorship at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law, and influential media presence.
Early Life and Education
Hugh Hewitt was born on February 22, 1956, in Warren, Ohio. He attended John F. Kennedy Catholic High School in his hometown. Demonstrating early academic promise, Hewitt graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1978 with a B.A. in Government. He honed his writing skills working for David Eisenhower and then as a ghostwriter for Richard Nixon, contributing to Nixon's books The Real War and Leaders. Encouraged by Nixon, he pursued law, earning a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif.
Career in Law and Public Service
Hewitt's career began in the realm of public policy and law. He served for nearly six years in the Reagan Administration in a variety of posts, including Assistant Counsel in the White House and Special Assistant to two Attorneys General. This experience provided him with a deep understanding of governmental processes and bolstered his expertise in constitutional law. He clerked for Judges Roger Robb and George MacKinnon on the D.C. Court of Appeals in 1983-84. He also served President Ronald Reagan as Deputy Director and General Counsel of the Office of Personnel Management, General Counsel for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and as Assistant White House Counsel and Special Assistant to the Attorney General.
In 1989, Hewitt became the executive director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. He left the Nixon Library in 1990. In 2019, Hewitt returned to the Nixon Library as president and CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation, the nonprofit that co-operates the Nixon Library with the National Archives and Records Administration.
Hewitt has been teaching Constitutional Law at Chapman University Law School since it opened in 1995, now known as Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, where he serves as faculty advisor for the Nexus Journal of Law & Public Policy. He is a tenured Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law.
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Radio and Media Career
Hugh Hewitt is best known for his work as a radio host and media personality. He hosted a weekend radio talk show for the Los Angeles radio station KFI, where he broadcast until 1995. In the spring of 1992, he began co-hosting L.A. PBS member station KCET's program Life & Times, and remained with the program until the fall of 2001, when he began broadcasting his own radio show. He launched his nationally syndicated radio show, The Hugh Hewitt Show, in July 2000. The show is broadcast from Virginia 3 to 6 pm EST on weekdays. The show appears on more than 75 stations and is syndicated by the Salem Radio Network. Beginning April 4, 2016, the show moved to a morning drive time slot. The show covers politics, culture, and policy, reaching a broad audience across the United States. His regular contributors include law professors John C. Eastman, former Dean of Chapman University School of Law, and Erwin Chemerinsky, erstwhile Dean of UC Irvine Law School and current Dean of UC Berkeley School of Law (whom Hewitt calls "The Smart Guys"), James Lileks, Mark Steyn, United States Naval Academy English professor David Allen White and Congressman David Dreier (R-CA), as well as frequent callers from around the country. Hewitt has also authored numerous books on politics and faith, blending his legal expertise with his keen insights into American society.
Hewitt has been a frequent guest on CNN, Fox News Network, and MSNBC, and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Times. He received three Emmys during his decade as co-host of the week-night television news and public affairs show Life & Times on PBS Los Angeles affiliate KCET-TV. He also conceived of and hosted the eight-part 1996 PBS television series Searching For God In America, and he authored a companion book by the same name. In 2020, NBC and MSNBC stopped inviting Hewitt to appear on their programs, which constituted a breach of contract. Thus, in 2021, Hewitt was released from that contract and started appearing on Fox News Channel.
Hewitt also writes daily for his blog, HughHewitt.com, which is among the most visited political and law blogs in the United States. He is also a weekly columnist for The Washington Examiner and Townhall.com. He also hosts two podcasts daily, “Highly Concentrated Hugh” and “The Interview with Hugh Hewitt”.
Political Commentary and Views
Hewitt is known for his conservative political views. He writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States. He frequently critiques the mainstream media on air, often inviting journalists to defend their work on the show. Hewitt has several times accused the Democratic Party of being anti-religion. He attends church regularly.
Hewitt moderated several of the 2016 Republican Party presidential debates and forums, where he clashed with Donald Trump. Hewitt said that Trump did not possess "the temperament to be president". In February 2016, Hewitt wrote that, despite being repeatedly publicly insulted by Trump, he would support him should he become the Republican nominee for president. In June 2016, after Trump's controversial remarks concerning Judge Gonzalo Curiel, Hewitt publicly called on the RNC to disendorse Trump as nominee. Amid the Trump-Ukraine scandal, which led to the first impeachment of Donald Trump, Hewitt floated a conspiracy theory that the whistleblower complaint that set off the scandal was by a whistleblower who was trying to divert attention from his own involvement in a "Clintons-Obama-Biden collusion debacle". In a June 2018 interview with then Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Hewitt repeatedly pressed Sessions about the morality of the Trump administration's decision to separate undocumented immigrant children from their parents. Hewitt said, "I don't think children should be separated from biological parents at any age, but especially if they're infants and toddlers.
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Awards and Recognition
Hewitt has received three Emmys for his work as co-host of the ground-breaking Life & Times program, a nightly news and public affairs program that aired on the Los Angeles PBS affiliate, KCET, from 1992 until 2007.
Personal Life
Hugh Hewitt is married to Betsy Hewitt, whom he married in 1982. They live in northern VA, have three adult children and many grandchildren. He is a lifelong supporter of the Cleveland Browns, Cavs, and Guardians and of THE Ohio State University Buckeyes.
Books
Hewitt is the author of more than a dozen books, including two New York Times best sellers. Some of his notable works include:
Searching for God in America (1996)The Happiest Life: Seven Gifts, Seven Givers, and the Secret to Genuine Success
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