Marc A. Thiessen
Marc Thiessen served as Chief Speechwriter to President George W. Bush, and a member of the White House Senior Staff. He was the lead writer on the President’s 2007 and 2008 State of the Union addresses, helping the President navigate his first appearances before a Democratic Congress. 

He worked closely with the President on hundreds of

Before coming to the White House, Marc served as Chief Speechwriter for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld from 2001 to 2004. He collaborated with the Secretary on all of his major speeches during his first three years in office – including Congressional testimony making the case for military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, statements at press briefings during major combat operations, and major policy addresses. Marc prepared all of the Secretary’s defense budget presentations before Congress – explaining complex budget decisions, and persuading Congress to support increased defense investments.

Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Marc spent more than six years on Capitol Hill as spokesman and senior policy advisor to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-NC) from 1995-2001. He organized Congressional hearings, designed legislative and communications strategies all of the Chairman’s major policy initiatives, and represented the Committee before U.S. and foreign news organizations. 

Marc was also press secretary for the 1994 Huffington for Senate campaign in California. He worked for former Congressman Vin Weber (R-MN) at the think tank Empower America, and spent his first five years in Washington at Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, the public affairs firm then headed by Republican strategist Charlie Black.

Marc’s writing has appeared in dozens of publications including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Foreign Policy, Weekly Standard, National Review, New York Post, and Cigar Aficionado. He has appeared frequently on television and radio, including Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, the BBC, NPR, and other news outlets.

Marc lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife, Pamela, who works in the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill as Staff Director of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. They have four children.

Peter Schweizer Peter Schweizer is the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including both New York Times and Washington Post bestsellers. Three of his books have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His works have been translated into 11 languages. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and served as a consultant to the White House Office of Presidential Speechwriting from 2008-2009.

In addition to his non-fiction work, Peter is the co-author (with Caspar Weinberger) of the thriller Chain of Command (Simon and Schuster). Publisher’s Weekly, in a starred review, called it a “debut political thriller crackling with a chilling authenticity and riveting dirty dealing.”

Along with the printed word, Peter has produced two documentary films. He was executive producer of In the Face of Evil, an epic documentary based on his book Reagan’s War. The New York Post declared it “the must-see movie of the season…disturbing and deeply moving.” The film is a winner of the 2004 Liberty Film Festival. Do as I Say is also the subject of a documentary currently in production.

Peter has written or co-written more than one hundred articles which have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, USA Today, National Review, Foreign Affairs, Canada’s National Post, Great Britain’s Daily Mail.

Peter is a former consultant to NBC News, where one of his stories won the Overseas Press Award for Investigative Journalism. He also served as a member of the Ultraterrorism Study Group at the U.S. government’s Sandia National Laboratory. He has appeared on dozens of television programs include ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, French national television, and the BBC.

Peter received his M.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford University and his B.A. from George Washington University. He lives in Florida with his wife Rochelle, also an author, and their two children.