Who is Chris Stirewalt, the former Fox News editor set to testify before Jan. 6 panel

Chris Stirewalt, a former top editor at Fox News, is set to be one of the witnesses testifying during Monday’s public hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. 

Stirewalt was a member of the team at Fox that made the decision to call Arizona for now-President Biden on election night 2020. The decision infuriated then-President Trump and his top aides, some of whom reportedly complained directly to Fox leadership about the relatively early call.

During an interview on Friday, Stirewalt said the hope is that following the hearings, people are “clear eyed and sturdy footed knowing that we can keep our constitutional system in place.”

“This is the first time in the history of the country that we really threatened the peaceful transfer of power,” he said. “We need to make sure that doesn’t happen in 2024.” 

Stirewalt is originally from Wheeling, W.Va., and worked at various local news organizations in the state before joining Fox News in 2010. 

He hosted a number of podcasts and authored newsletters while with Fox before eventually moving to its Decision Desk. 

Since leaving Fox, Stirewalt has been critical of the news media over its Trump coverage. 

“Americans gorge themselves daily on empty informational calories, indulging their sugar fixes of self-affirming half-truths and even outright lies,” he wrote in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times after leaving the conservative media giant. “Can anyone really be surprised that the problem has gotten worse in the last few years?”

Stirewalt did not indicate what exactly he would be testifying about on Monday, but the committee has signaled its second hearing would focus on how Trump and those in his orbit knew there was no validity to his claims of widespread voter fraud.

The Jan. 6 House panel held its first prime-time hearing on Thursday, drawing nearly 20 million viewers as it began to lay out its case that Trump and his allies were at the center of a criminal effort to overturn the 2020 election, an effort that culminated in the insurrection at the Capitol.

“All Americans should keep this fact in mind: On the morning of Jan. 6, President Trump’s intention was to remain president of the United States despite the lawful outcome of the 2020 election and in violation of his constitutional obligation to relinquish power,” said committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).

Stirewalt is currently a political editor at NewsNation, which is owned by The Hill’s parent company, the Nexstar Media Group.