McKay Coppins

McKay Coppins
Born (1987-02-02) February 2, 1987 (age 37)
Massachusetts, United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationBrigham Young University
OccupationJournalist
Known forReporting on politics, religion
Websitewww.theatlantic.com/author/mckay-coppins/

McKay Coppins (born February 2, 1987) is an American journalist, author, and staff writer for The Atlantic.

Career

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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 one of the "30 under 30" media pundits in Forbes magazine[3] and also 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 called 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

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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 is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in which he served a full-time mission, and he has often written about his faith.[14][15] Coppins felt his background in the church helped him while writing about Mitt Romney, a fellow Latter-day Saint, as it helped Coppins "in understanding the elusive candidate as an actual person".[16] Coppins and his wife were married in 2009 and have four children.[17]

References

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  1. ^ Coppins, McKay. "The Manchurian Candidate". Newsweek.
  2. ^ "McKay Coppins, the Mormon on Mitt's trail". Politico. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
  3. ^ "McCay Coppins, 25, Politics editor, Buzzfeed". Forbes. Archived from the original on December 31, 2012.
  4. ^ Dylan Byers, "10 breakout political reporters of 2012", Politico (November 25, 2012).
  5. ^ "Meet The Next Wave Of Political Pundits". Details. 31 (2): 48. November 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-10-25.
  6. ^ "36 Hours On The Fake Campaign Trail With Donald Trump". BuzzFeed. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
  7. ^ "Trump Calls BuzzFeed Reporter 'True Garbage with No Credibility'". Mediaite. 18 February 2014. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
  8. ^ Trotter, J.K. "BuzzFeed's Trump Takedown Drives Breitbart to the Brink of Insanity". Gawker. Archived from the original on 2016-02-05. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
  9. ^ John Diaz. "'The Wilderness,' by McKay Coppins". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
  10. ^ Mead, Walter Russell (March 2016). "The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House by McKay Coppins". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
  11. ^ "How the Haters and Losers Lost" by McKay Coppins July 17, 2016
  12. ^ Allen, Mile (2023-02-09). "Scoop: Mitt Romney reveals hundreds of emails to book author". Axios. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  13. ^ Mallon, Thomas (2023-10-19). "The Twilight of Mitt Romney". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  14. ^ a b "McKay Coppins as Mr. Buzzfeed and the 'Mormon Wikipedia'". The Daily Universe. 2014-11-14. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
  15. ^ McKay Coppins, Why The Internet Hasn't Shattered My Mormon Faith, BuzzFeed News (July 22, 2013).
  16. ^ Green, Lloyd (2023-10-29). "Romney: A Reckoning review: must-read on Mitt and the rise of Trump". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  17. ^ Toone, Trent. "Atlantic journalist and BYU graduate McKay Coppins talks Latter-day Saint millennials", Deseret News, Utah, 2 October 2018. Retrieved on 21 February 2020.
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