What’s Up with Tony?

How Tony Dokoupil went from being a hair model to a print journalist to the anchor of CBS Evening News, guided by the principle “We love America.”

On January 3, the night the United States military abducted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and bombed Caracas, Pete Hegseth—the secretary of war, as he likes to be called—sat down for an interview with Tony Dokoupil, who had leaped in to the CBS Evening News anchor chair ahead of schedule to cover the story. Hegseth, in a red, white, and blue tie, took the opportunity to crow, calling the action the “most sophisticated, most complicated, most successful Joint Special Operations raid of all time” and “the best of America.” Dokoupil was attentive. He asked if the administration would seek congressional approval for a full-scale intervention, but did not question the legality of the raid itself. Then he repeated Hegseth’s words from a press conference earlier that day: “I’m gonna say it slow so I get it right,” Dokoupil said. “Maduro effed around and found out.”