AP names Hennessey, Klapper to Washington leadership roles

The Associated Press has promoted reporters Kathleen Hennessey and Bradley Klapper to a pair of key leadership positions in its Washington bureau. Hennessey will direct coverage of the White House and the Trump administration, while Klapper will oversee AP's reporting on foreign affairs.

Their appointment to their new roles as Washington bureau news editors was announced Wednesday by AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Sally Buzbee. They will report to acting Washington Bureau Chief Wendy Benjaminson.

"Kathleen and Brad have been among AP's top reporters in our Washington bureau," Buzbee said. "I'm excited to see them move into new roles where they can lead others to reach the same level of excellence."

Hennessey manages AP's expanded team of White House reporters and will also work closely with AP journalists across the United States and overseas as they report on Donald Trump's presidency.

As national security news editor, Klapper will oversee the reporters who cover U.S. foreign policy and the military, while also working closely with journalists at the White House, on Capitol Hill and in AP's bureaus around the world to provide comprehensive and richly told reporting on some of the world's most pressing issues.

Hennessey, 40, first joined the AP in 2005 as a state government reporter in Carson City, Nevada, and then covered politics, development and entertainment in the Las Vegas bureau. She later joined the Washington bureau of The Los Angeles Times, where she covered national politics, Congress and the White House. She returned to AP as a White House reporter in 2015.

She is a 1998 graduate of Boston College, where she studied American history, and she holds a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Klapper, 38, has covered U.S. foreign policy at the State Department and Congress since 2010, and reported from 70 countries. He started with the AP in Geneva in 2005, where he covered the U.N. and global trade. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Haverford College and a master of advanced international studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, Austria. He speaks French and German.

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