Kay Burley does not take a backward step. Whatever she does, wherever she goes, whoever she interviews and whoever she “engages” with on social media, there is little evidence of doubt. So, flying to Washington to broadcast her daily morning show for Sky News – starting at 3am (Eastern Daylight Time) – is just another gig, even when she is there to report on the presidential election battle between Donald Trump and Joe Biden that every man and his dog is calling the most important since 1932.
Burley has been on British TV for an impressive 30 years and has clocked up more hours of live broadcasting than the Test Card. She also has a knack of being on air when the big stuff happens, most notably the 9/11 attacks and the death of Princess Diana. So, it’s logical that she will also be covering this election in all its global significance, this time from a rooftop – in wind, rain and shine (though not much at 3am) overlooking the White House.
With Burley, the car is always running. That’s because she never quite knows where she will be sent for her next assignment. No doubt the keys will be in the ignition on the morning of 4 November so when her producer asks her to chase a breaking story somewhere else in the US, she’ll be ready to go. That’s what happened in 2016, when she was told to get an interview with Donald Trump during the campaign, which required a long drive to Iowa. Needless to say she got the interview. And again on the morning after Trump’s unexpected victory.
On the day I spoke to her she had already responded to social media criticism with a pithy and entirely admirable “bollocks”, which she says she checked first to see if it broke Ofcom rules. It did not, so the keyboard warrior got the full force of her disdain. Her clipped, brusque interviewing style is applied to public figures from all sides of the argument and while the BBC and Channel 4 struggle to get scrutiny-averse cabinet ministers on the air, they seem willing to appear on her Sky News morning show, which seems paradoxically masochistic on their part.
She’s had her fair share of critics and on-air spats, which is a measure of her reach as much as her skill at getting under people’s skin. But she takes impartiality very seriously, since it enables her to ask her trademark quickfire, sometimes unsettling questions without a hint of double standards. She spoke to GQ from the US capital.
GQ: What’s the plan for election night?
Kay Burley: I won’t be getting much sleep. During the last election I was in Times Square when it became apparent what was about to happen. Then I had to drive a 700-mile round trip to Youngstown in Ohio where the story was. The rough plan is for me to report from our makeshift studio at the top of a very tall building overlooking the White House taking over at 7am London time. You can’t plan everything. Last time the New York Times predicted a 92 per cent chance of victory for Hillary Clinton and look what happened.
GQ: How did those decisions evolve?
KB: I started off on the [Staten Island] Ferry, doing normal reports, and then did a bit from an ice rink because I’d done Dancing On Ice. Then we went into Times Square to do some vox pops – and then the penny started to drop that something was happening and went round to the Fox News building where Trump supporters were gathering. My head of news said, “Get in the car, we want you to broadcast from the Rust Belt as soon as you can get there.” And I only knew Youngstown from the Bruce Springsteen song, so I said, “Let’s go.”
GQ: Are all election nights the same, essentially?
KB: The overall thing is to expect the unexpected. I was with the anti-Brexiteers on the day of the EU referendum and then I found myself driving over Westminster Bridge to Boris Johnson’s house at 3am. That’s my job. People are waking up and thinking, “What? What?” and we need to be where the story is.
GQ What’s the mood like in Washington?
KB: Feverish. Depends which news channel you watch. It’s surprising the channels can slant quite so much over here when we are governed by Ofcom in the UK. CNN has Biden bias and Fox has a Trump bias, but the backdrop is an election in the middle of a pandemic and a president who contracted Covid. There are mass protests in the streets and there are new ones in Philadelphia. There is a struggling economy and we have two candidates over 70 and potentially the first female vice president and – and – and – she is African American and an Indian American. It’s all there. We all know what happened with Al Gore in 2000 – it took a month and was decided by the Supreme Court, and we’ve just had a new judge sworn in as an extra twist.
GQ: What were your impressions of Donald Trump when you met him on campaign in 2016?
KB: As with most successful politicians, Trump has a certain charisma. They attract people towards them. My boss sent me out to meet him and told me failure was not an option. It was tricky because I had a microphone to put under his nose and I didn’t want his security details to think it was a gun. When I got to talk to him he was a pretty impressive politician.
GQ: How do you feel about him now after four years of his presidency?
KB: Reporting his bad behaviour isn’t that different from reporting the appalling behaviour of other politicians. When he behaves in an inappropriate fashion, such as his comments about women, then I’m going to call him out on it as I’m doing at the moment with politicians in the UK about not putting food in kids’ empty bellies. My job is to formulate questions that my audience want to know the answer to. That’s my job. If I was sitting down with Biden I would ask him about his son Hunter [subject to ongoing accusations of corruption]. I want to get to the bottom of the story.
GQ: Will the car be running again on the morning of 4th?
KB: Oh yes. Maybe it will be Pennsylvania this time if Biden wins. Florida would be lovely this time of year.
GQ: Do your personal feelings about an issue ever inform your interviews?
KB: I hope not. But I think it’s OK to be human. It’s OK to be cross that kids are going without food over the half-term break. It’s OK to press hard when a president won’t condemn organisations that are extremist. I don’t think people know my politics or my views. I’m keen to support women in politics. I don’t give them an easier time but I won’t stand for men being anything but respectful to female politicians. The only time I got very, very angry was when I was interviewing the chief executive of Alton Towers when kids had gone to his theme park to celebrate their exams and came away missing limbs. I got a proper hammering on social media.
GQ: Do people make assumptions about your views?
KB: All the time. As you can see if you look at Twitter
GQ: Do you think the UK government is avoiding scrutiny from journalists?
KB: Maybe as far as the prime minister is concerned, but over the past few weeks on my show I’ve had the foreign secretary, the transport secretary and the chancellor. I’ve had them all in the back of my cab, so no Boris but I haven’t had Keir Starmer either. I’ll get them eventually.
GQ: What event has had the most emotional impact on you while you’ve been on air?
KB: Diana, without question. I had seen her a little because we used the same gym. She was the same age as me as well. I wasn’t prepared for her to die, just like the rest of the nation. I cried all the way home.
GQ: Do you think you are a role model with other women in journalism?
KB: I hope I’m a role model to men and women in journalism. I try to support young journalists who come to me for advice. There weren’t many women in newsrooms when I started in television and now there are plenty. At Sky I think the newsroom is 50-50.
GQ: What are you looking forward to most about the next few days?
KB: It’s so fascinating. There are so many stories with Trump, Biden and Kamala Harris. Even Mike Pence is still on the road shaking hands with people after five of his staff got coronavirus and he’s supposed to be in quarantine. Every twist and turn is so exciting.
Kay Burley is presenting Sky News Breakfast live from Washington DC, from 7am-midday GMT
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