Harris Faulkner has a knack for keeping things professional, but she's endured serious personal loss like any human being and weathered serious societal tragedy like any journalist.
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00:00Harris Faulkner has a knack for keeping things professional, but she's endured serious personal
00:05loss like any human being, and weathered serious societal tragedy like any journalist.
00:10The 2020 holiday season proved to be a difficult one for Harris Faulkner, as she lost her father,
00:15Bobby Harris, on Christmas Day. Her mother had previously passed away four years earlier.
00:20Faulkner posted a message on social media that said,
00:22"'Always guiding me through his grace and strength, Dad will now do so from heaven,
00:26beside my mother. I am theirs and they are mine forever."
00:29Faulkner actually chose to use her father's last name as her first name when she was young,
00:33and then later chose the surname Faulkner from a distant family member. Her father was
00:37a military veteran who was coincidentally born on Flag Day. Faulkner shared on Instagram
00:42that their patriotic family creed was,
00:44"'Praise God, love America and all Americans, especially when we don't agree. Do all you
00:49can for those who can offer you nothing more than their company.'"
00:52She also paid her respects on X, formerly known as Twitter, by writing,
00:56"'My dad has died. I shall remain silent for a bit while our family's Christmas North Star
01:00takes its place in heaven.'"
01:02Harris Faulkner is a devout Christian, and her faith is the basis for her best-selling
01:06book, Faith Still Moves Mountains. But this faith of hers was seriously tested after her
01:10father passed away. As she admitted to the Christian Post,
01:13"'I struggled mightily with my own faith journey during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic
01:17when my dad passed away on Christmas morning in 2020.'"
01:21Faulkner attributed the pandemic lockdowns as significant factors that caused her to
01:24drift away from her beliefs. As she revealed,
01:26"'I began to pray less and cry more in my loss. It was a ridiculous recipe for someone
01:31who was raised by parents who taught the opposite.'
01:33But when Faulkner found an annotated Bible that belonged to her father while packing
01:37up his apartment, his own words on the page rekindled her faith. As she revealed,
01:41"'It came complete with handwritten notations about scriptures that he loved. I began to
01:45read his interpretations and expressions of faith.'
01:48This new connection with her late father helped her heal, as she explained,
01:51The more I prayed and read his Bible notes, it felt like pieces in my life, however broken,
01:56were being knitted back together."
01:58On December 14, 2012, Faulkner stood in the parking lot of Sandy Hook Elementary School
02:02in Newton, Connecticut as hearses began pulling into the area where she was about to go live.
02:07The mass shooting that occurred that morning killed 26 people, including 20 children.
02:12Faulkner chose to softly begin her reporting with a moment of silence. Her ability to know
02:16what to say and what not to say in the face of tragedy helped guide Faulkner and her audience
02:20through the difficult day. She and her colleagues discussed whether they would report on the
02:24number of deaths and the mental toll that it took on her. In a 2022 interview with The
02:28Washington Times, she revealed,
02:30"...I have broken down on air, and Sandy Hook was hard. I think because I'm used to that
02:34feeling of kind of all eyes on me as I tell a story, I'm okay with people seeing the truth
02:38about me, as long as they know I'm going to tell them the truth."
02:42When Faulkner interviewed Donald Trump in 2020 for Fox News, the conversation turned
02:46to the Black Lives Matter protests that were sparked by the death of George Floyd. Faulkner
02:50made it clear to Trump that his response was different than how a person of color
02:53would react. As she put it,
02:55"...when George Floyd called out on the last few breaths of his life for his mom, his black
02:59mother, he called my name, Mr. President. He called my name. I'm mom first."
03:03"...there was no getting around that the questioner looked a lot like the protesters in the street."
03:08Correcting Donald Trump is no simple task, but for Faulkner, it was less about being
03:12combative and more about being human. As she explained to Forbes,
03:16"...sometimes it calls for the humanity and the humanness of the moment to come forward.
03:19You don't have to interject and be bold with opinion or whatever, but you do need to let
03:23people see who you are."
03:25Faulkner ultimately looked back on the moment with pride, as she admitted,
03:28"...this is why I said what I said. We got a better interview, because we both came at
03:32it from different perspectives."
03:34During a 2017 episode of Outnumbered, Faulkner managed to weather her co-host Melissa Francis'
03:38emotions when a conversation about race became a little too contentious. Faulkner and Juan
03:43Williams were the only people of color on the panel. Faulkner listened as her co-host
03:47debated whether or not Donald Trump said there were very good people among a group
03:50of neo-Nazi protesters at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. As Francis
03:54defended Trump's assertions, she began to cry, and insisted,
03:57"...I am so uncomfortable having this conversation. I know what's in my heart, and I know that
04:03I don't think anyone is different, better, or worse, based on the color of their skin."
04:08Despite the dire circumstances surrounding the need to talk about race-related issues,
04:12Faulkner's hosting instincts were quick to kick in before the situation could get even
04:15more awkward. She offered the perfect segue, as she said,
04:18"...You know, Melissa, there have been a lot of tears on our network and across the
04:22country and around the world."
04:24Faulkner then managed to hold Francis accountable by closing with a gentle but obvious piece
04:28of truth.
04:29"...This is not 1950. We can do this. We can have this conversation. Oh yes, we can.
04:35And it's okay if we cry having it."