McKay Coppins
American journalist and author
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
McKay Coppins (born February 2, 1987) is an American journalist, author, and staff writer for The Atlantic.
McKay Coppins | |
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| Born | February 2, 1987 Massachusetts, US |
| Education | Brigham Young University |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for | Reporting on politics, religion |
| Website | www |
Career
Coppins began his career at Newsweek and broke the story that Jon Huntsman Jr. would resign his ambassadorship in China and run for president.[1]
Coppins joined BuzzFeed to cover the 2012 presidential race, becoming an important source on Governor Mitt Romney's Latter-day Saint (Mormon) faith.[2] In 2012, Coppins was named as one of the "30 under 30" media pundits in Forbes magazine,[3] and was listed along with three other young BuzzFeed News journalists as one of Politico's "ten breakout reporters of 2012."[4] He is a regular contributor to CNN and MSNBC.[5]
In the run-up to the 2016 presidential primaries, Coppins became embroiled in a public Twitter feud with Republican candidate Donald Trump after writing articles suggesting that Trump was running a "fake" campaign.[6][7][8]
In November 2016, he announced he was leaving BuzzFeed to join The Atlantic as a staff writer.
In 2015, Coppins published The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House.[9] Walter Russell Mead favorably reviewed the book in Foreign Affairs, writing that it was "[w]idely sourced and compellingly written."[10] He has an acrimonious relationship with President Donald Trump after he called his presidential aspirations a "sham"; Trump in response called him a "dishonest slob".[11]
Coppins released a biography of Mitt Romney titled Romney: A Reckoning on October 24, 2023. The book covers 25 years of American politics, based on 45 interviews with Romney and thousands of private emails, text messages, and diary entries.[12][13]
Personal life
Coppins was raised in Holliston, Massachusetts.
He graduated from Brigham Young University where he was editor of BYU's student newspaper, The Daily Universe.[14]
Coppins and his wife were married in 2009 and have four children as of 2018.[15]
Coppins is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), for which he served a full-time mission, and he has often written about his faith.[14][16] He felt his background in the church helped him while writing about Mitt Romney, a fellow Latter-day Saint, as it helped him "in understanding the elusive candidate as an actual person".[17]