Announcement from National Editor Philip Rucker, Deputy National Editor Amy Fiscus and Senior National Enterprise Editor Peter Wallsten:
We are elated to announce that Robert Samuels, one of his generation’s most perceptive, empathetic and eternally curious journalists, is returning to The Washington Post as a National enterprise reporter with a broad mandate to document America at this consequential time.
Robert’s mission is to tell compelling, distinct and essential stories that excavate complicated truths about the people, institutions and history of the United States. Our readers will discover, through his deep reporting and powerful storytelling, the forces tearing our country apart and the people trying to heal it. He will craft narratives in his unique voice and also collaborate with colleagues across the newsroom.
This is a homecoming for Robert, who had been integral to the fabric of The Post for more than a decade before departing a year ago for a role as a staff writer at the New Yorker. There, he untangled the lessons that the country could learn from the collapse of D.C.’s criminal code and unraveled the tidy tale of racial harmony at Sen. Tim Scott’s high school.
Last year, Robert and his co-author, Toluse Olorunnipa, our White House bureau chief, won the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction for their book, “His Name is George Floyd,” an intimate and gut-wrenching portrait of an ordinary man whose 2020 murder at the hands of police sparked a national movement for racial justice. Robert and Tolu’s biography, which also was also a finalist for the National Book Award, stemmed from The Post’s in-depth series, “George Floyd’s America,” which won the Polk and Peabody awards.
Robert wrote a memorable essay for the New Yorker describing how their book got caught up in the fight over book bans during his and Tolu’s visit to a Memphis public school.
Robert first arrived at The Post as a summer intern on the Local desk in 2006 and then returned to the staff full-time in 2011. He joined the National Politics team in 2015 and developed a knack for finding extraordinary stories in ordinary places. Reporting from 40 states for The Post, Robert saw what others didn’t and listened carefully to people he encountered throughout the country.
He wrote about a racially integrated college step show that fell apart amid tensions over identity, Syrian refugees in Nebraska whose faith in the United States endured even as they faced day-to-day bigotry, a Muslim and a Christian who met at a Dairy Queen to try to settle their differences, and a White woman in Oklahoma figuring out how to be woke. He unearthed new details about the time a 19-year-old Joe Biden worked as a lifeguard at a predominantly Black swimming pool and revealed Pete Buttigieg’s clumsy quest to understand the Black experience.
Robert also covered the sport of figure skating with insight and verve, turning his personal obsession into authoritative analysis through three Olympics and a world championship. Post readers can look forward to his dispatches from the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milano-Cortina, Italy.
A true Post original, Robert is a generous colleague, inspiring mentor and evangelist for the institution’s mission and values. He says he was drawn back to The Post, in part, because “I miss working with my friends every day.” His creativity and intellectual rigor have contributed to our past successes and will help propel our future triumphs. For those who recall his epic newsroom sendoff last year, and with apologies to one of his heroes, Lin-Manuel Miranda, we are delighted that Robert has indeed not forgotten from whence he came – and concluded there’s a million things he hasn’t done here. Just you wait.
Please join us in welcoming Robert home. He begins his new role on Feb. 12.
