Leland Vittert


Leland Holt Vittert is an American journalist and news presenter for Fox News. He joined the network in 2010 as a foreign correspondent based in Jerusalem.
In addition to his weekend anchor and reporting duties, Vittert fills in for hosts on Fox and Friends, America's Newsroom, and Happening Now.

Early life and education

Vittert was born on August 31, 1982 in Illinois. Vittert earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He also completed The General Course, a one-year study abroad program at the London School of Economics.

Career

Prior to joining FNC, Vittert anchored the weekend news at KDVR-TV in Denver, Colorado and was a reporter for WFTV-TV in Orlando, Florida. He also at KATV-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas, KNWA-TV in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and WMTV-TV in Madison, Wisconsin.
As a young reporter, Vittert received an Emmy Award nomination for clearing a police officer wrongly accused of rape.
Vittert's coverage of the Freddie Gray riots in Baltimore was praised by Mediaite and The Daily Caller. According to Mediaite, Vittert “made his mark…by standing among protesters, facing a silent line of riot police, while interviewing residents and demonstrators affected by the story in various ways. He news about the Baltimore mayor's alleged stand-down orders for police, and tense question-and-answer exchanges with lawmakers and public figures throughout the city.”
Arriving in the Middle East in 2010, Vittert began following the Arab Spring. In 2011, he was one of the few reporters live on the ground in Cairo's Tahrir Square on the night that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak left power. Vittert subsequently traveled to Libya during the first days of the country's revolution, where he reported on Muammar Gadaffi's counterattack and later from the besieged city of Misurata.
Vittert covered Operation Pillar of Cloud, the 2012 war between Israel and Hamas. He has interviewed Muhammad al-Zawahiri, the brother of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Before coming to Washington, D.C. in 2014, Vittert spent a month in Eastern Ukraine as Russian-backed militias took over parts of the country.
While covering the George Floyd protests outside the White House in Washington, D.C., Vittert and his crew were attacked by protesters and later chased away from the area. In an interview on Cavuto Live the following day, Vittert stated that he and his crew were assaulted after a protester realized they were employed by Fox News.

Personal life

Described as “dapper and well-spoken,” Vittert won Westword's “Best Hair on a TV Anchor Award” in 2007. His sister, Liberty Vittert, is a television chef and professor of data science at Harvard University.