Peter Wehner
Senior Fellow
Peter Wehner is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and a contributing editor for The Atlantic magazine. Mr. Wehner has written for numerous other publications—including Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, The Weekly Standard, National Review, Commentary, National Affairs, and Christianity Today—and has appeared frequently as a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, CBS, PBS, and C-SPAN television. He was also the Pamela and Jack Egan Visiting Professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy and the School of Arts and Sciences at Duke University in 2019–2020.
Peter Wehner is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and a contributing editor for The Atlantic magazine. Mr. Wehner has written for numerous other publications—including Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, The Weekly Standard, National Review, Commentary, National Affairs, and Christianity Today—and has appeared frequently as a commentator on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, CBS, PBS, and C-SPAN television. He was also the Pamela and Jack Egan Visiting Professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy and the School of Arts and Sciences at Duke University in 2019–2020.
Mr. Wehner served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations prior to becoming deputy director of speechwriting for President George W. Bush. In 2002, he was asked to head the Office of Strategic Initiatives, where he generated policy ideas, reached out to public intellectuals, published op-eds and essays, and provided counsel on a range of domestic and international issues. He has also served as an adviser to several presidential campaigns.
Mr. Wehner’s book The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump (HarperCollins) was published in June 2019. He is also author of City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era (co-authored with Michael J. Gerson), Wealth and Justice: The Morality of Democratic Capitalism (co-authored with Arthur C. Brooks), and co-editor of books on foreign policy (The Latin American Policies of U.S. Allies) and national security (Promise or Peril: The Strategic Defense Initiative).
You’re Being Manipulated
Peter Wehner
Political partisans are using social media to divide, dominate, disorient, and ultimately demoralize the people on the other side.
Articles
The Atlantic / July 14, 2021
Will Christian America Withstand the Pull of QAnon?
Peter Wehner
None of us can fully escape the downsides and the dark sides of our communities and our culture. The question is whether those who profess to be followers of Jesus show more of a capacity than they have recently to rise above them, to be self-critical instead of simply critical of others, to shine light into our own dark corners, even to add touches of grace and empathy in harsh and angry times.
Articles
The New York Times / June 18, 2021
The Scandal Rocking the Evangelical World
Peter Wehner
The sudden departure of Russell Moore from the Southern Baptist Convention is forcing an overdue conversation about the crises of American Christendom.
Articles
The Atlantic / June 7, 2021
An Interview with Dr. Francis Collins
Peter Wehner
EPPC Senior Fellow Peter Wehner talks with the director of the National Institutes of Health about the extraordinary effort to develop a COVID vaccine in record time, what surprised him the most about the coronavirus, the investigation into the virus’s origins, and whether any collateral good might come from this horrible pandemic.
Articles
The Atlantic / June 2, 2021
Trump Is Marching Down the Road to Political Violence
Peter Wehner
The Republican Party must counteract lies rather than indulge them.
Articles
The Atlantic / May 20, 2021
In Liz Cheney vs. Donald Trump, Guess Who Won
Peter Wehner
Declaring fealty to a lie has become the single most important test of loyalty in today’s Republican Party.
Articles
The New York Times / May 12, 2021
The Battle Cry for a Post-Trump GOP
Peter Wehner
Rejuvenating the Republican Party will depend on examples of leadership, vision and a base ready to reembrace conservatism’s highest ideals.
Articles
The Deseret News / May 4, 2021
The GOP Is a Grave Threat to American Democracy
Peter Wehner
The best thing those who love the Republican Party can do for it is to speak the truth about it.
Articles
The Atlantic / April 26, 2021
Why Is Jesus Still Wounded After His Resurrection?
Peter Wehner
All things, even broken things, can be made new again, and sometimes they can be made even more beautiful. And they need not be hidden, in shadows or in shame.
Articles
The New York Times / April 3, 2021
The Man Who Refused to Bow
Peter Wehner
Adam Kinzinger is a liberated individual—liberated from his party leadership, liberated from the fear of being beaten in a primary, liberated to speak his mind.
Articles
The Atlantic / February 27, 2021
If Republicans Don’t Disown Trump, He Will Continue to Own Them
Peter Wehner
Why do Republicans continue to defend a man who lost the popular vote by more than seven million votes, whose recklessness after the election cost them control of the Senate, and who is causing a flight from the Republican Party?
Articles
The New York Times / February 14, 2021
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