Amanda Macias

Amanda Macias is an American journalist who reports on national security subjects for the financial news network CNBC.

Early life and education
Amanda Macias was born at Fort Bliss, in El Paso, Texas. She grew up in a military family and has lived on U.S. Army installations around the world.

She is a 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and Finance. In 2021, she attended Columbia University as a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship Program.

Career
In 2008, Macias worked as a general assignment news reporter and then anchor for NBC News affiliate KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri. She later joined Reuters as a field producer in Brussels,Belgium where she covered EU political institutions and NATO. In 2013, she moved to New York City and joined Business Insider as a national security correspondent. In 2016, Macias moved to Washington, D.C., where she joined the national security team at CBS Radio.

In 2018, Macias joined financial news network CNBC as a national security reporter. In addition to national security, her beat includes the defense industry, State Department and the United Nations as well as the intelligence community.

Government investigation
Macias became embroiled in the government arrest of a counterterrorism analyst with whom she was romantically involved, according to prosecutors. The government referred to her as "Journalist 1," and Erik Wemple of The Washington Post tied both names together, while comparing Macias to Ali Watkins. The Wall Street Journal identified a second involved journalist as Courtney Kube, a senior reporter for NBC, whom Macias involved in the leaks. NBC, like CNBC, is a subsidiary of NBCUniversal.

The analyst pled guilty to agreeing to disclose classified information because it would support Macias' career and was sentenced to 30 months in prison but was released early.

Personal life
She lives in the historic Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, D.C. and speaks three languages. In 2018, she briefly shared an apartment in Washington DC with her then boyfriend, Henry Kyle Frese; previously, she lived in New York. In 2021, CNBC deemed Macias to be Hispanic.