2018 Founding Debates

Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University, the CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Audubon. The Chicago Tribune has dubbed him “America’s new past master.” His recent publication Cronkite won the Sperber Prize for Best Book in Journalism and was a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year.

Edna Greene Medford is a professor of history at Howard University, where she teaches courses on Jacksonian America, Civil War and Reconstruction, nineteenth-century history, and African American history.

Russell Shorto is the best-selling author of Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom and The Island at the Center of the World. Shorto is also a graduate of George Washington University, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, and the Director of The John Adams Institute in Amsterdam.

Olivier Knox is SiriusXM's Chief Washington Correspondent. Through his storied career in journalism, Knox has covered six presidential campaigns and has a deep knowledge of the inner-workings of Capitol Hill and the White House. 

Abby Phillip is a CNN White House Correspondent based in Washington, D.C. She joined the network in 2017 to cover the Trump Administration. Phillip previously worked at The Washington Post where she served as a national political reporter, covering the White House. 

Robert Costa is a National Political Reporter for the The Washington Post and Moderator of PBS’s “Washington Week.”

Mona Charen is a syndicated columnist and Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her conservative opinion column is featured in more than 150 newspapers and websites.