Sam Donaldson - ABC News

ABC News

Donaldson was hired by ABC News as a Washington correspondent in October 1967. He covered the two major party political conventions in 1968 and in 1969 began anchoring the network's 11:00 pm Saturday and Sunday newscasts.

In 1971, Donaldson covered the war in Vietnam for ABC News. He was ABC's chief Watergate correspondent in 1973-74, covering the trial of the Watergate burglars, the Senate Watergate hearings and the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment investigation of President Nixon.

Donaldson covered Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign and became the network's White House Correspondent in January 1977, a post he held until January 1989. One of his most widely remembered questions during his tenure at the White House came during the Reagan administration: "Mr. President, in talking about the continuing recession tonight, you have blamed Congress and mistakes in the past. Does any of the blame belong to you?" To which Reagan retorted: "Yes, for many years I was a Democrat!"

Donaldson appeared as a panelist on the Sunday morning television program This Week with David Brinkley from its inception in 1981 and after Brinkley's retirement in 1996 co-anchored the This Week program with Cokie Roberts until the two were replaced in September 2002 by George Stephanopoulos. He still occasionally serves as a panelist on This Week.

Donaldson anchored the ABC Sunday Evening News from its inception in 1979 until August 1989.

Donaldson co-anchored the network's magazine program Primetime Live with Diane Sawyer from 1989 to 1999. One of his reports featured a Nazi Gestapo officer named Erich Priebke who had escaped to Argentina after World War II. Donaldson's team located Priebke in 1994, and Donaldson interviewed him on a street in Bariloche, Argentina, about his role in the execution of 335 Italian civilians on the direct orders of Adolf Hitler in the caves outside Rome. When the report aired, Italy demanded Priebke's extradition and Argentina eventually complied. Priebke was sentenced to life in prison in Italy for his crimes.

In 1990-91, Donaldson covered the first Persian Gulf war (Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm) and co-anchored Primetime Live from Kuwait City two days after the Iraqi troops were forced out.

In August 1992, Donaldson and his producer David Kaplan went to Sarajevo on assignment. On the way into town from the airport, Kaplan, riding in a second vehicle, was shot to death by a sniper. That night from Belgrade, Donaldson, co-anchoring the program Primetime Live, reported on Kaplan's death.

In January 1997, Donaldson was once again assigned to the White House as the network's chief correspondent there and served until mid-1999. He covered the Lewinsky scandal and the impeachment of President Clinton (who was acquitted by the Senate).

In 2002, Donaldson anchored the first regularly scheduled U.S. news broadcast on the Internet and, in later years, hosted the ABC News Now "Politics Live" broadcast.

Beginning in 1964, Donaldson has covered every major party political convention to the present except the Republican convention in August 1992.

Donaldson was voted Best White House Correspondent in 1985 by readers of the Washington Journalism Review and Best Television Correspondent in 1986, 87, 88, and 89 by readers of the same magazine. Among his other awards are four Emmys, three Peabodys, the Edward R. Murrow award 1997 (WSU), the Paul White award (RTNDA 1998), and he and his wife Jan were among those named as "Washingtonians of the Year" by Washingtonian Magazine in 2002.