Amanda Macias


Amanda Macias is an American journalist who reports on national security subjects for CNBC.

Early life and education

Amanda Macias was born at Fort Bliss, in El Paso, Texas. She comes from a military family, and has lived in Germany, South Korea, and in Times Square, New York.
She is a 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and Finance.

Career

Macias was a field producer in Brussels, reporting on EU political institutions and NATO. In 2013, she became a Business Insider correspondent, joining its defense industry and military team. Prior to that, in 2008, she was an on-camera reporter for KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri. In August 2010, she joined Missouri Digital News.
Before March 2018, Macias was a CBS Radio web editor. At CBS Radio, by June 2017, she was a national security reporter.
She joined CNBC's Washington office in 2018, where she covered the Pentagon. In addition to national security, her beat included the defense industry and the intelligence community.

Government investigation

Macias became embroiled in the government arrest of a Pentagon counterterrorism analyst with whom she was romantically involved, according to prosecutors. The government referred to her as "Journalist 1," and Erik Wemple of The Washington Post tied both names together, while comparing Macias to Ali Watkins. The Wall Street Journal identified a second involved journalist as Courtney Kube, a senior reporter for NBC, whom Macias involved in the leaks. NBC, like CNBC, is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal.
The analyst pled guilty to agreeing to disclose classified information because it would support Macias' career, which the defense described as "stalling," and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Personal life

As of 2019, she shared a home in Washington DC with her then boyfriend, Henry Kyle Frese, and her cat, Harlem.