Patrick Joseph “Pat” Buchanan is an American paleoconservative, political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician, and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior advisor to three U.S. Presidents: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. He was an original host on CNN’s “Crossfire” program. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996, and ran on the Reform Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election.

Born in Washington, D.C., Mr. Buchanan was educated at Gonzaga High School where he graduated first in his class in 1956. He attended Georgetown on a full academic scholarship, graduating with honors in English and Philosophy in 1961, and was inducted into the university’s Gold Key Society. He received a Masters degree from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia in 1962.

At 23, he became the youngest editorial writer on a major newspaper in America, The St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

From 1969 to August of 1974, he was a Special Assistant to President Nixon, working with the President on the Cambodian invasion speech, and with Vice President Spiro Agnew on many of his speeches on the media and student disorders. He was a member of the official U.S. delegation to the Peoples Republic of China in 1972, and attended the Moscow–Yalta–Minsk summit of 1974.

After President Nixon’s resignation, Mr. Buchanan served President Ford until October of 1974.

After leaving the White House, Mr. Buchanan became a nationally syndicated columnist, and in 1982 began as a panelist on NBC’s “The McLaughlin Group” and a co–host of CNN’s new show “Crossfire.”

In 1985, Mr. Buchanan returned to the White House as Director of Communications for President Ronald Reagan. He accompanied the President to the Geneva summit with Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev — and was with President Reagan in Hofde House at Reykjavik which has been described as the decisive summit of the Cold War.

On leaving the White House in 1987, Mr. Buchanan returned to journalism, his syndicated column, and to “The McLaughlin Group,” “Crossfire,” and began hosting a new show, "Capital Gang" on CNN.

In 1992, Mr. Buchanan challenged President George H. W. Bush for the Republican nomination. He won three million votes in the GOP 1992 primaries – coming very close to winning the New Hampshire Primary.

His keynote address on “the culture war” at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston is ranked among the most electrifying and controversial in convention history. In 1996, he ran a second time for the GOP nomination, won the New Hampshire primary, and finished second to Sen. Robert Dole, achieving three million Republican votes.

After winning the nomination and running for president on the Reform Party ticket in 2000, Mr. Buchanan retired from politics and returned to journalism as an author, columnist, and a commentator on MSNBC for almost a decade.

Mr. Buchanan has written 12 books, including seven New York Times bestsellers:

A Republic, Not an Empire: Reclaiming America's Destiny (2000)
The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization (2002)
Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency (2005)
State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America (2007)
Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed are Tearing America Apart (2009)
Churchill, Hitler and The Unnecessary War: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World (2009)
Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025 (2012)
The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority (2015)

His latest book is Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever (Crown Forum, May 9. 2017).

Mr. Buchanan currently works an author, columnist, chairman of The American Cause foundation, and an editor of The American Conservative. He is married to the former Shelley Ann Scarney, who was a member of the Richard Nixon's vice presidential staff from 1959-61, and a member of the White House Staff from 1969 to 1975.