CNN in
Davos in 2008 After her internship, which began in 1988 or 1989, Bartiromo spent five years as an
executive producer and assignment editor with
CNN Business. Her supervisor at CNN was
Lou Dobbs, who later became a colleague at
Fox Business.
CNBC Live from the stock exchange floor In 1993, Bartiromo was hired by executive
Roger Ailes to replace analyst Roy Blumberg at CNBC, and began reporting live from the floor of the
New York Stock Exchange, as well as hosting and contributing to the
Market Watch and
Squawk Box segments. Over the years, writers for multiple media outlets have commented on her good looks and likened her appearance to that of the Italian actress
Sophia Loren. It is a comparison that Bartiromo has acknowledged and welcomed as a compliment. Bartiromo was nicknamed the "Money Honey" in the mid-to-late 1990s, a moniker that she had conflicted feelings about lest it diminish her credibility as a financial journalist. In January 2007, Bartiromo filed trademark applications to use the term "Money Honey" as a brand name for a line of children's products, including toys, puzzles and coloring books, to teach kids about money. By some accounts she later let the trademarks expire. In 2006–07 there was controversy over Bartiromo possibly being too close socially to some of the executives she was covering, which included overseas trips with some such sources. and Bartiromo retained the confidence of NBC upper management. Her salary there was around $4 million a year. Her first show with Fox Business was
Opening Bell with Maria Bartiromo. She expanded the subject domains she covered to include not just the stock market but also larger questions of public policy and the overall economy.
Presidential debate host The developments of the
2016 Republican presidential nomination race benefited her ratings, as she developed an on-air relationship with Trump. She even drew some boos from the audience for suggesting that likely Democratic nominee
Hillary Clinton had much more relevant experience than the candidates on stage. She then co-hosted on Fox Business another Republican debate, this time on January 14, 2016 in the
North Charleston Coliseum, one that was not previously planned but awarded on the basis of the first performance. One assessment of the North Charleston debate was that the moderators were initially mild but got tougher as the debate went on and delved more into economic matters. She received a good deal of attention during this period for her sartorial choices for the traditional
Al Smith Dinner.
Donald Trump presidency After Trump became president in 2017, she became an advocate for the
Trump administration. In her Trump interviews, she expressed agreement with and did not question Trump's claims, many of which had been debunked as false or unsubstantiated. Attorney general
Bill Barr named federal prosecutor
John Bash to lead an investigation, which concluded months later with no findings of substantive wrongdoing and no public report. In late November 2020, after
Trump lost his bid for reelection, Bartiromo conducted the first post-election interview with Trump. Before the interview, Bartiromo texted
Mark Meadows, then Trump's chief of staff, with advice that included questions she planned to ask Trump. In the interview, she backed Trump's false claims of election fraud and his
attempt to overturn the election results, claiming that Trump was being overthrown in a "coup". in which she never asked Trump to substantiate his claims of fraud. Trump praised Bartiromo as being "brave" for her approach to discussing the disputes. In his November 2021 book,
Betrayal, former ABC News chief White House correspondent
Jonathan Karl reported a November 2020 incident when Bartiromo called attorney general
Bill Barr "to complain that the DOJ hadn't done anything to stop the Democrats from stealing the election." Barr told Karl, "She called me up and she was screaming. I yelled back at her. She's lost it."
Promoter of "election fraud" falsehoods According to media reporter
Brian Stelter, Bartiromo's unsourced and poorly sourced on-air conversation with
Sidney Powell on November 8, 2020, largely started the network's false and potentially defamatory claims about the election, which Trump lost—Bartiromo did no
fact checking, no push back, nor even ask for evidence, merely repeating "unhinged" and false claims. Bartiromo was an outspoken proponent on her program of baseless allegations that rigged voting machines stole the election from Donald Trump. Hosts
Lou Dobbs and
Jeanine Pirro also promoted the falsehoods on their programs. Attorneys for
Smartmatic, a voting machine company that had been baselessly accused of conspiring with competitor
Dominion Voting Systems to rig the election, sent Fox News a letter in December 2020 threatening legal action and demanding retractions that "must be published on multiple occasions" so as to "match the attention and audience targeted with the original defamatory publications." The three programs each ran the same three-minute video segment refuting the baseless allegations days later, consisting of an election security expert being interviewed by an unseen and unidentified man, though none of the three hosts personally issued retractions. In February 2021, Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News, three of its hosts, including Bartiromo, and two network guests. A New York State Supreme Court judge ruled in March 2022 that the suit against Fox News could proceed, dismissing allegations against two individuals but allowing claims against Bartiromo to stand. In January 2021, after the
storming of the U.S. Capitol that was carried out by a mob of supporters of Trump, Bartiromo hosted Trump economic advisor
Peter Navarro on her show, where he falsely claimed in the interview that Trump had won the election. Bartiromo concurred, falsely claiming, "We know that there were irregularities in this election." In a broadcast on January 19, she falsely claimed that Democrats wore MAGA clothing and were behind the storming of the Capitol. In July 2021, Bartiromo referenced
Ashli Babbitt, who was shot while part of a pro-Trump mob trying to push through a barricaded door inside the U.S. Capitol building, a "wonderful woman" who "went to peaceful protest." In October 2024, Bartiromo promoted a story from
The Gateway Pundit, a
far-right fake news website, claiming that Arizona Secretary of State
Adrian Fontes was trying to "hide" an "election integrity problem" in Arizona.
Ratings success Five years after joining the fledgling network, both her shows and the channel itself was surpassing CNBC in audience size some of the time. In September 2019, she signed a new multi-year deal with FBN. That year,
TheStreet.com reported that Bartiromo had an annual salary of $10 million, seventh highest among American television news anchors of any kind. During the latter part of January 2021, at the outset of the
Biden administration, Fox News gave Bartiromo a trial run to head one of Fox News' primetime slots, the new weekday 7 p.m.
Fox News Primetime political opinions show. Her guest hosting stint began the week of January 25, 2021. She did not get the time slot.
Books and other publications Bartiromo is the author of several books. Her first was
Use the News: How to Separate the Noise from the Investment Nuggets and Make Money in Any Economy (
HarperCollins, 2001). Her next two books were
The 10 Laws of Enduring Success (
Crown Business, 2010) and
The Weekend That Changed Wall Street (
Portfolio Hardcover, 2011). A fourth book, of which she held the status of co-author along with
James Freeman, was titled
The Cost: Trump, China, and American Renewal (
Simon & Schuster, 2020).
Awards, honors and memberships Bartiromo is the recipient of an Excellence in Broadcast Journalism Award (1997); a Lincoln Statue Award presented by the
Union League of Philadelphia (2004); a
Gracie Award, for Outstanding Documentary (2008); and two Emmy Awards, an
Emmy Award for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story (2008) and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting (2009). In 2009, the
Financial Times listed Bartiromo as one of "50 Faces That Shaped the Decade". In 2011, she was the third journalist to be inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame. In 2016, she was inducted into the
Library of American Broadcasting. Bartiromo is on board of trustees of
New York University, her alma mater. The seminar that she co-taught in fall 2010, titled "Global Markets and Normative Frameworks", filled its registration in 10 minutes. She has been on the board of trustees for the
New York City Ballet. She has been on the board of the
Girl Scout Council of Greater New York, Public Education Needs Civic Involvement and Leadership (PENCIL) in New York, and the
Young Global Leaders of the
World Economic Forum. ==Personal life==