NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who once called President Donald Trump a “deranged racist sociopath,” testified Wednesday to Congress that she’s “never seen … political bias” at the taxpayer-funded outlet, a comment that provoked laughter.
“Is NPR biased?” Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) asked Maher.
“Congressman, I have never seen any instance of—” Maher said.
“Never?” Jordan said.
“—of political bias determining editorial decisions, no,” Maher continued. The answer prompted laughter that can be heard in video of the hearing.
Even as Maher rejected charges of political bias at NPR, she acknowledged that the outlet delivered poor coverage of two politically charged stories: the Hunter Biden laptop and the origins of COVID-19. NPR was “mistaken in failing to cover the Hunter Biden laptop story more aggressively and sooner,” Maher said. She acknowledged that “the new CIA evidence” about the Wuhan lab leak “is worthy of coverage.”
Maher did not say what explained those mistakes if not political bias. She did say that the number of registered Democrats working at NPR compared with registered Republicans is “a concern.”
Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger appeared in front of the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency as part of Republicans’ broader effort to investigate and strip federal funding from the broadcasters. NPR and PBS for decades have taken federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in the 2025 fiscal year alone received around $535 million from the federal government.
The subcommittee’s investigation follows the unexpected resignation last year of longtime NPR senior editor Uri Berliner, who blasted “devastating” bias at the broadcaster and singled out Maher’s “divisive views.” During Wednesday’s hearing, Jordan pointed to Berliner’s accusations, such as his finding that NPR has 87 Democrats and 0 Republicans filling editorial positions in the Washington, D.C., area.
Both NPR and Maher, who became the broadcaster’s CEO in 2024, have a long history of left-wing statements.
In 2020, Maher dismissed widespread looting and property damage during the Black Lives Matter riots, saying it was “hard to be mad” about the destruction. She suggested that July that the United States is facing the “spectre of tyranny” following the death of George Floyd.
Maher in May 2020 tweeted that President Donald Trump is a “deranged racist sociopath.” She walked back the description during Wednesday’s hearing, saying she now regrets the tweet.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R., Texas) during the hearing pressed Maher on her 2020 left-wing posts. After Gill asked Maher if she thinks white people should pay reparations, she said, “I have never said that, sir.”
But Maher wrote in a January 2020 post, “Yes, the North, yes all of us, yes America. Yes, our original collective sin and unpaid debt. Yes, reparations. Yes, on this day.”
Gill also called out NPR reporting that claimed “fear of fatness is more harmful than actual fat” and pointed to what an NPR guest described as a “whole community of genderqueer dinosaur enthusiasts.”
Trump on Tuesday said he “would love to” defund NPR and PBS, calling the networks “very biased” and a “waste of money.”
Published under: DOGE , Donald Trump , Government Spending , Jim Jordan , Katherine Maher , Lab Leak , Laptop , Media Bias , NPR , PBS , Reparations
