She anchors two daily news programs, The Faulkner Focus (weekdays 10 a.m. CT) and Outnumbered (weekdays 11 a.m. CT) on FOX News Channel, but six-time Emmy-winning journalist Harris Faulkner says Kansas City is where she honed the skills that propelled her groundbreaking national career.
Her tough-yet-fair June 2020 interview of then-President Trump was lauded by Columbia Journalism Review for being “neither antagonistic nor admiring” while holding the president accountable for his past statements on race. Less than a month ago, Faulkner used the same calm, courteous, and armed-to-the-teeth-with-facts demeanor to dismantle Nikki Haley’s attempt to minimize a town hall response in which she failed to mention slavery as a cause of the Civil War.
Faulkner, born in Georgia to a social worker and an Army combat pilot who served three tours in Vietnam, earned a BA from University of California, Santa Barbara in business economics and mass communications. She broke into TV news in Greenville, North Carolina, before joining Fox 4 in Kansas City from 1992-2000. At her next gig at an ABC affiliate in Minneapolis, Faulkner won a national Headliner award and married fellow-TV journalist Tony Berlin. The couple has two daughters.
Faulkner has written two books, Faith Still Moves Mountains – Miraculous Stories of the Healing Power of Prayer and 9 Rules of Engagement – A Military Brat’s Guide to Life and Success. She has more than half a million followers on X, @HARRISFAULKNER, and Instagram, @harrisfaulkner.
In a recent call with IN Kansas City from her 21st floor office in midtown Manhattan, Faulkner discussed her military upbringing, her devotion to Kansas City barbecue and the Chiefs, and shared a hilarious story about meeting her husband.
You closed out 2023 by embarking on what you called a “divine assignment” to Vietnam. Why did you go there?
It was really a divine journey that I was put on but also, if you will, a military brat mission, because my dad served, and I had a lot of curiosity around that.
Fox Nation is our streaming platform, and there were seven of us. We set out to put together something really special for that platform. The question that we asked ourselves was singular and critical: When you meet a Vietnam military veteran, there’s a lot of conflict around what to say, because of what went on in this country during the war. America became divided, and there were things we didn’t know enough about during that war, and when our troops returned home like my father, there was heartache and pain and anger and confusion.
With other wars, people say, “Thank you for your service,” but with that one, is there any other way to answer the question about what can we say as an American public? And I come home with that answer. My curiosity points around a communist nation where we spent much blood and treasure were met with incredible experiences we’ll share this Memorial Day weekend when we do our big special.
As a fellow military brat—my dad was a naval aviator in Vietnam—I’m curious what you feel were the challenges and rewards of growing up in a military family?
There were so many plusses for me. I can be dropped down in the middle of nowhere with like five things in a suitcase, make a friend, make a connection that’s important strategically, use everything in that suitcase and still have more purposes for everything I packed in 15 minutes.
Growing up BRAT—Born, Raised And Transferred—is a huge upside for just one’s ability to adjust and be resilient. The other thing, too, is that you and I have a sense of patriotism that is ingrained. We don’t have to read about it, people don’t have to explain to us what that is. We are loved by people who understand that life requires dedication and sacrifice. The greatest country in the world isn’t on accident. And in the 1960s when our fathers would have served in Vietnam, especially the first tour that my dad took, there were in many parts of the South, like Georgia, where I was born, we couldn’t share a lunch counter with people who were not black. There were signs, “No Coloreds here.” There were people who were being lynched.
There were all sorts of things going on in America, but my father called it something more critical than the push-pull of race or culture. He said, “We are a young country that’s learning to be great.” And he had, because of the Constitution, so much faith in America’s potential, that he said, “We as people of color, as black people, must show up for this country when the call of duty comes. If they allow me to go be a combat pilot and fight….” This is what he told his two younger brothers and family, because nobody wanted him to fight for America at that point. They were like, “Why don’t you go march in the streets?” And he said, “I have a different divine calling in my life, and this particular mission requires that I go represent, that I be one of the black faces in the US military.” [He was] coming out with an engineering and aeronautical degree from Georgia Tech, which back then was rare. And he came from nothing. He came from East Texas, a little town called Malakoff.
Your father passed away Christmas morning in 2020. What kind of a man was he around the house?
Well, this is going to sound pretty strange. After all the struggle and battle and war, my father had the sunniest disposition of anybody I’ve ever met. He was so funny. And he loved to laugh. If somebody walked in the room and was negative, he’d say, “I’m going to try to rub off on you, because you’re not having a good day. And if you’re not having a good day, and your life’s not at stake today, we gotta talk.”
He ended up being a math and physics teacher. He just couldn’t sit down, even into retirement. Like, at 80, the State of Texas is telling him, “Dude, we got you. You can retire.” He just couldn’t stay out of the schools. He said, “Young people need to hear me.”
Are Christmases hard now, since he died on Christmas Day?
Knowing that he passed away in his sleep, and that he was all dressed up, ready to go to my sister’s for Christmas early brunch…That morning when he didn’t show up, [my sister] sent my dad’s two younger brothers, Uncle Ronnie and Uncle Tim, to go figure out what happened to Bobby. And they said, you know what, he was peaceful. The Lord called him home. And I just pray that my father wasn’t worried at that moment, that he wasn’t troubled at that moment, that he was the consummate optimist and battle-ready soldier he had always been.
It was in Minneapolis that you won your first Emmy and a Headliner award. What are some specific things you learned while working at FOX 4 that contributed to your groundbreaking national career?
I mean, I grew up on TV in Kansas City! I was only in my first market for a very short period of time. And because it was such a small market, in Greenville, North Carolina, you’d see a lot of people coming in and out at the beginning of their career. By the time I got to Kansas City, I was part of a community. People said, “We heard you talk about your faith on TV. Is that going to be OK?” And I thought, “You know what? I’m in the right place.”
People don’t mind in the wider public if I happen to lean on my faith. We had things happen in that market. We had horrible floods. We had tornadoes and everything you could imagine. And it’s not my vision to proselytize, but I have always been open when people ask me, “How do you handle delivering the news in those toughest moments?” I began that conversation on the air at Channel 4, WDAF, with my then-co-anchor and my friend, Phil Witt. We would say, “Oh, my goodness. This is tough.” And I would say, “I’m going to pray.”
And I just knew that market was such a great place for me to be. That’s why I didn’t leave for a long time. And when I moved into prime time with Phil, Mike Thompson on weather and Frank Boal on sports, we were that core group, and I remember that not just as a journalist but as a young girl becoming a woman. They were great friends and mentors. The families enveloped me.
My parents at that point had moved to Denver, and then they ended up back in Texas. So at that point, having immediate family around was great, but I’ve got to tell you, anywhere else I’ve ever lived, I didn’t get visited nearly as much as I did when I lived in Kansas City. My parents were always like, “Hey, we’re coming to see you, we’re coming back! They loved Kansas City.” [Laughs] Oh my gosh, first of all, my dad and mom opened a barbecue rib place as a pop-up restaurant. And I was like, “They are totally into it!” They took the tastiness of Kansas City and merged it with that barbecue down in Texas.
When I was given the Amelia Earhart lifetime achievement award, in Atchison, Kansas, it was one of my first public speeches, and they came back for that, and my parents loved being in Kansas. My dad even spoke a little at one point. I was like, “Dad, they didn’t really invite you to be on the schedule,” and he said, “There are some people here who asked me to say a few words to the local paper.” And I said, “But you don’t do that sort of thing!” And he talked about living on a military base in Kansas and how it was one of the places where if you went off base, you felt supported. And I was like, “Wow, they have a Kansas story to tell?”
But anyway, I bought my first home—single girl—on Ward Parkway. My parents helped me buy that house, and when I got into the home, it needed some, you know, little touches here and there. They came and helped me fix it up and paint and put in some parquet wood floors. And that became such a touchstone of: You’re beginning your life as a successful woman. We want to be there, we want to see it, we want to be part of it.
‘‘Kansas City was where I first realized bigger parts of my dream as a journalist. But what I loved most was being called upon by a community that I was connected to.”
Kansas City was where I first realized bigger parts of my dream as a journalist. But what I loved most was being called upon by a community that I was connected to. And that became my divine assignment, being put to work by Kansas City pastors and whoever needed me to come out to the schools, you know, “Can you say a word? Can you lift people up?” My mom was a social worker and my dad served in the military. Service is in my blood, so for nearly eight years, that’s what I did. And I loved it.
And I do love barbecue, too—KC Masterpiece and Gates. I don’t really like to fall down too much on one or the other because it’s the sauce, and I think they both do a good job. You didn’t ask me that question, but I just thought I’d volunteer it.
You just saved me the time of asking because there has to be a barbecue question, right? And, since February is the month of love, here’s the Valentine’s question: How did you meet your husband, and was it love at first sight?
Ooh! We were competitors. He was at the CBS network station—which is different than an affiliate, it really is part of the network—in Minneapolis. He was usually the lead story, because he was an investigative reporter. He was a really talented live-shot artist. And I was at KSTP, the ABC affiliate. I was an evening anchor. I started out at 5 o’clock, and I was making some history there. I was written about as the first black woman to anchor the news at that hour in the state. Norm Coleman was the mayor of St. Paul before he aspired to go into the Senate. [My husband] saw me in this promotion where I’m jogging along the river and the mayor waves to me. [Laughs] He saw that, and he called a good friend of ours who did the news at 6 p.m., Julie Nelson, and he said, “I really want to meet her. She’s new.” And she’s like, “Well, she is new. I’ll have to ask her if it’s OK for you to reach out. I don’t know her that well either.” The nicest people were in my newsroom then. And I thought, “If Julie thinks he’s a nice guy, I’m sure he’s a nice guy.” We figured out that we would meet in person at Julie’s birthday party, which was like the next week.
He showed up with a date. I don’t know how much you want of this story.
I want all of it, Harris.
[Laughs] He shows up with a date! And I remember her name, but I won’t say. She was a yoga instructor. Do you think that narrows it down too much? Anyway, he shook my hand and introduced me to his date! And they were on a double date, and I turned around to Julie and I pointed and I said, “Are you kidding me right now?” And she just kind of gave me this rolled shoulder like, “Girl, I don’t know.” And I thought, “OK, that takes some gall right there.”
Because I had checked him out on TV, too, after he tried to talk to me. And I thought, OK, I’m looking forward to meeting this guy. And he was much taller in person, much better looking in person, he’s like 6’4”. But, guy came with a date! What do I do with that?
So in my mind, he was fired.
Obviously.
And apparently when that didn’t work out with him and the yoga instructor, which was not long after that—I want to say a couple of weeks—Julie came to me and said, “He wants to email you. He wants to reach out.” And I said, “Oh, no. Huh-uh.” And she said, “I can tell that he’s…” “Uh-uh. Mm-mm. No.” And she was so kind. She said, “You know what? You need friends.”
And I said, “You know what? You’re right. OK. I have room for a friend.” And you know, you put a guy in the friend lane and it’s hard to get out of the friend lane. And he was driving hard in the friend lane. And I was like, “Mm-mm, you cannot cross over.”
So we became friends. That was in November. And the following May—we had kept in contact, I had dated other guys, gone out on what I call a cold dinner meal, where you just pick at your food because you’re so bored. [Laughs] I thought, yeah, there’s not much going on any way and this guy’s asked me to get together, and I said, “You know what we’re going to do this time? We’re going to have a 30-minute look-see after the evening news on both our stations.” We had been friends for like six months. And I like to say that May 10, 2001 was the last first date I ever had.
He got out of the friend lane, and we dated for a year, and in August of the next year he proposed, on Lake Superior, in Duluth, on the warmest day that summer. [Laughs] I don’t think I’ve ever told anybody else that story.
Thank you.
I guess I needed to tell it. But let me hook it back to Kansas City. So, April 2023 was our 20-year anniversary, and we thought we would just make a year out of it, when you’ve been married as long as we have. So he got me a Kansas City Chiefs jersey with the number 20. Now, I’m a diehard fan. I’ve been to both Super Bowls with
Mahomes, and I’m here for the struggle year. I’m not fair-weather. And he wanted me to wear the jersey on the actual anniversary to mark the passing of our 20th year and the beginning of the 21st year. So, I take it out of the box, and I didn’t get it. I was like, “Mahomes is 15!” I thought, “I know you’re not a Chiefs fan, but come on.” And he goes, “Turn it over, and it had my name on the back, and he goes, “You’re on my team.” So romantic!
Interview condensed and minimally edited for clarity.