Ayesha Rascoe

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Allison Shelley / NPR

Ayesha Rascoe is a White House reporter for NPR.

Prior to joining NPR, she covered the White House for Reuters, chronicling President Barack Obama's final year in office and the beginning days of the Trump administration. Rascoe began her reporting career at Reuters, covering energy and environmental policy news, including the 2010 BP oil spill and the U.S. response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011. She also spent a year covering energy legal issues and court cases.

She graduated from Howard University in 2007 with a B.A. in journalism.

Booker Says Biden's Crime Policies 'Destroyed Communities Like Mine'

By Ayesha Rascoe • Aug 1, 2019

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Cory Booker went head-to-head over their records on criminal justice on the second night of the Democratic presidential primary debate in Detroit.

This was a fight that had been brewing for a while. The New Jersey senator spent the past few weeks repeatedly criticizing Biden for his role, when he was a Delaware senator, in crafting the landmark 1994 crime law that many criminal justice reform activists identify as one of the major contributors to the swelling of the U.S. prison population.

President Trump Defends Incendiary Tweets

By Ayesha Rascoe & David Greene • Jul 30, 2019

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This morning, President Trump doubled down on his recent incendiary tweets about Baltimore City and about Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings who chairs the House Oversight Committee. The president spoke a short while ago as he was leaving the White House.

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta Resigns

By Steve Inskeep & Ayesha Rascoe • Jul 12, 2019

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Alexander Acosta Steps Down As Labor Secretary Amid Epstein Controversy

By Ayesha Rascoe • Jul 12, 2019

Updated at 5:05 p.m. ET

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta is stepping down after criticism over his role in a nonprosecution deal reached years ago with the well-connected businessman accused of sex crimes, Jeffrey Epstein.

Acosta appeared on Friday at the White House with President Trump and announced his resignation.

"I do not think it is fair for this administration's Labor Department to have Epstein as its focus rather than the incredible economy we have today," Acosta said. "The right thing was to step aside."