McKay Coppins (born February 2, 1987) is an American journalist and author who is a staff writer for ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

''. In 2012, Coppins was one of the ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' magazine's "30 under 30" media pundits and listed along with three other young ''

BuzzFeed News ''BuzzFeed News'' is an American news website published by BuzzFeed. It has published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was heavily criticized, and the FinCEN Files. Since its establishment in 2011, i ...

'' journalists as one of ''

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

''s "ten breakout reporters of 2012." He is a regular contributor to CNN and

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

. Coppins was raised in

Holliston, Massachusetts Holliston is a New England town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States in the Greater Boston area. The population was 14,996 at the 2020 census. It is located in MetroWest, a Massachusetts region that is west of Boston. Holliston i ...

. He graduated from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

where he was editor of BYU's student newspaper, '' The Daily Universe''.

Career

Coppins began his career at ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' and broke the story that

Jon Huntsman Jr. Jon Meade Huntsman Jr. (born March 26, 1960) is an American businessman, diplomat and politician who served as the 16th Governor of Utah from 2005 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the Ambassador of the United States t ...

, would resign his ambassadorship and run for President. Coppins joined ''BuzzFeed'' to cover the 2012 presidential race, becoming an important source on Governor

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts ...

Latter-day Saint Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into sev ...

(Mormon) faith. In the run-up to the 2016 presidential primaries, Coppins became embroiled in a public

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

feud with Republican candidate

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

after writing articles suggesting that Trump was running a "fake" campaign. 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''.

Walter Russell Mead Walter Russell Mead (born June 12, 1952) is an American academic. He is the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and taught American foreign policy at Yale University. He was also the editor-at-large of ...

favorably reviewed the book in ''

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy a ...

'', writing that it was " dely sourced and compellingly written." He has an acrimonious relationship with President

after he called his presidential aspirations a "sham"; Trump in response called him a "dishonest slob".

Personal life

Coppins is a member of the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ...

(LDS Church), in which he served a full-time mission, and he has often written about his faith. He and his wife were married in 2009, and they have three children.Toone, Trent
"Atlantic journalist and BYU graduate McKay Coppins talks Latter-day Saint millennials"
''

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...

'', Utah, 2 October 2018. Retrieved on 21 February 2020.

References

External links

* published Feb 20, 2020 Amanpour and Company {{DEFAULTSORT:Coppins, McKay 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American writers Latter Day Saints from Massachusetts American political journalists American political writers American reporters and correspondents The Atlantic (magazine) people Brigham Young University alumni Journalists from Massachusetts Living people Newsweek people People from Holliston, Massachusetts Writers from Massachusetts BuzzFeed people 1987 births