Chris Whipple is an author, political analyst, documentary filmmaker, and speaker. He’s been called “an indispensable observer of American power.” Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent of The New York Times, calls him “a premier journalist and historian of the White House as well as the intelligence community.” A former CBS 60 Minutes producer, Whipple is author of the eagerly anticipated, upcoming Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, Trump, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History, to be published April 8, 2025. His previous books include The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, a New York Times bestseller, The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future, and The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House.  He has written for Vanity Fair, Politico, the Daily Beast, and many other publications. Whipple has spoken at the Harvard Kennedy School and Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

In Uncharted, Whipple chronicles, in minute-by-minute detail, the history-making 2024 presidential election, a political saga of Shakespearean proportions, documenting the true story of the Harris and Trump campaigns and the difficult, urgent decisions made in the back rooms of power.

Uncharted is the fly-on-the-wall story of campaign 2024, drawing on Whipple’s unique access to exclusive sources on both sides, including conversations with members of the candidates’ inner circles. Whipple goes behind the scenes of every headline-making moment to reveal how a post-debate intra-party rebellion forced Biden to step aside, how the nomination of Vice President Harris at a thrilling convention reshaped the race, how Harris rallied excited voters across generations and demographics, but ultimately could not overcome the underlying weaknesses of her campaign. Whipple also burrows inside Donald Trump’s campaign to reveal new insights into how he overcame primary opponents and multiple prosecutions, rebranded his base to appeal to Gen Z voters, and forged powerful alliances with Silicon Valley CEOs like Elon Musk.

An intimate portrait of American politics on the edge, filled with previously untold stories, anecdotes, and insights, Uncharted is the authoritative account of this pivotal chapter in American politics.

Chris Whipple’s career in journalism has spanned forty years and countless major world events. He began in Washington D.C. as assistant to Richard Holbrooke at Foreign Policy Magazine; as a correspondent at LIFE Magazine, he covered apartheid in South Africa; revolution in the Philippines; famine in East Africa – and conflicts in El Salvador, Lebanon and Northern Ireland.

He interviewed Winnie Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, Ted Kennedy and other world leaders; and wrote profiles of Bjorn Borg and Chris Evert. At 60 Minutes, Mr. Whipple produced segments on Imelda Marcos, Corazon Aquino, John Connally, George H.W. Bush and John McEnroe. He won a Peabody Award for “Mr. Snow Goes to Washington,” which resulted in a national ban on lawn darts.

At ABC News PrimeTime, Whipple produced investigations into mammography and workers compensation fraud; he won the national Emmy for Investigative Reporting for “Morgan Medical,” a medical clinic rigged with hidden cameras that captured doctors and middlemen offering illegal kickbacks for patients.

He pioneered the use of hidden cameras in social experiments, including an Emmy-nominated story on the fatal allure of guns to children. He also created and was Executive Producer of the hit ABC News series, What Would You Do?, with John Quinones, which captures ordinary people’s reactions to ethical dilemmas. As the producer of Pastor to Power: Billy Graham and the Presidents, with Charles Gibson, Whipple directed interviews about faith and the presidency with all the living ex-presidents.

behind the scenes