Bill Kristol
William Kristol (/ˈkrɪstəl/; born December 23, 1952) is an American neoconservative writer.[2] A frequent commentator on several networks including CNN, he was the founder and editor-at-large[3] of the political magazine The Weekly Standard. Kristol is now editor-at-large of the center-right publication The Bulwark and has been the host of Conversations with Bill Kristol, an interview web program, since 2014.[4][5]
Not to be confused with Billy Crystal.
Bill Kristol
Democratic (before 1980; 2020–present)[1]
Republican (1980–2020)
3
- Irving Kristol (father)
- Bea Himmelfarb (mother)
Matthew Continetti (son-in-law)
Kristol played a leading role in the defeat of the Clinton health care plan of 1993,[6] and for advocating the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[7][8] He has been associated with a number of conservative think tanks. He was chairman of the New Citizenship Project from 1997 to 2005. In 1997, he co-founded the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) with Robert Kagan. He is a member of the board of trustees for the free-market Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a member of the Policy Advisory Board for the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and a director of the Foreign Policy Initiative. He is also one of the three board members of Keep America Safe, a national-security think tank co-founded by Liz Cheney and Debra Burlingame, and serves on the boards of the Emergency Committee for Israel and of the Susan B. Anthony List (as of 2010).[9]
Kristol is a critic of former president Donald Trump,[10] a supporter of the Never Trump movement, and a founder and director of Defending Democracy Together, an advocacy organization responsible for such projects as Republicans for the Rule of Law and the Republican Accountability Project.
Early life and education[edit]
William Kristol was born on December 23, 1952, in New York City into a Jewish family, the son of Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb. Irving Kristol was an editor and publisher who served as the managing editor of Commentary magazine, founded the magazine The Public Interest, and was described by Jonah Goldberg as the "godfather of neoconservatism."[11] Gertrude Himmelfarb was a prominent conservative historian, especially of intellectual history in the U.S. and Great Britain.
Kristol attended Collegiate School for Boys in Manhattan. He received a bachelor's degree at Harvard University and also a Ph.D. in political science in 1979.[12][13]
Personal life[edit]
Since 1975, Kristol has been married to Susan Scheinberg, whom he met while they were both students at Harvard. Scheinberg holds a Ph.D. in classics. The couple has three children.[62] Their daughter, Anne, is married to writer Matthew Continetti, editor-in-chief of The Washington Free Beacon website. Their son, Joseph, served in the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan and worked for the management consulting company McKinsey & Company before taking a job as legislative director for Senator Tom Cotton in 2018.[63][64] Kristol lives in McLean, Virginia.[65]