McKay Coppins | |
---|---|
Born | Massachusetts, United States | February 2, 1987
Nationality | American |
Education | Brigham Young University |
Occupation | Journalist |
Known for | Reporting on politics, religion |
Website | www |
McKay Coppins (born February 2, 1987) is an American journalist, author, and staff writer for The Atlantic .
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]
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]
Ezra Taft Benson was an American farmer, government official, and religious leader who served as the 15th United States Secretary of Agriculture during both presidential terms of Dwight D. Eisenhower and as the 13th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1985 until his death in 1994.
Willard Mitt Romney is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer, and the junior United States senator from Utah since 2019. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and was the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in the 2012 election, losing to Barack Obama.
The Universe is the official student newspaper for Brigham Young University (BYU) and was started in 1956.
The Romney family is prominent in U.S. politics. Its family members include George W. Romney (1907–1995), the 43rd Governor of Michigan (1963–1969), and his son, Mitt Romney, who was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts (2003–2007), the 2012 Republican U.S. Presidential nominee, and is currently a U.S. Senator for Utah. George W. Romney's father was Gaskell Romney (1871–1955), and his mother was Anna Amelia Pratt (1876–1926). Anna's grandfather was the renowned early Latter-day Saint apostle Parley Parker Pratt.
The Mitt Romney presidential campaign of 2008 began on January 3, 2007, two days before Mitt Romney left office as governor of Massachusetts, when he filed to form an exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission to run for President of the United States as a Republican in the 2008 election. Subsequently, on February 13, 2007, he formally announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in 2008. He did so at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, as an emblem of American ingenuity.
Ann Lois Romney is an American author and philanthropist. She is the wife of businessman and politician, Senator Mitt Romney of Utah. From 2003 to 2007, Romney was First Lady of Massachusetts, while her husband served as governor.
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The public image of Mitt Romney refers to how Americans view Mitt Romney. Following his 2008 presidential campaign, Romney's personal and political appearance increased. Romney's values and affiliation with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are significant factors in his public image and "Faith in America" speech.
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Mormon Stories Podcast is a podcast principally hosted by psychologist John Dehlin featuring interviews with individuals and occasionally scholars on Mormon topics. The podcasts are noted as a platform for individuals critical of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, skeptic and dissident individuals.
Deseret Digital Media, Inc. (DDM) is a subsidiary company of Deseret Management Corporation (DMC), an American holding company owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. DDM owns digital assets, primarily focused on the Utah news and classifieds site KSL.com and tourism site Utah.com.
Christopher R. Barron is an American political activist best known as the cofounder of GOProud, a political organization representing gay conservatives. He is the president of CapSouth Consulting, a political consulting firm, and previously the organizer of LGBT for Trump and the national political director for Log Cabin Republicans, where he directed the organization's federal lobbying efforts and media relations.
Abigail Haight Huntsman is an American journalist and television personality. The daughter of former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. and Mary Kaye Huntsman, Huntsman rose to prominence as a host on MSNBC and NBC News. She then became a general assignment reporter for Fox News Channel and later a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend. Huntsman co-hosted the ABC talk show The View from September 2018 to January 2020.
Taggart Mitt Romney is an American management consultant, businessman, venture capitalist and political advisor. He is the eldest son of businessman and U.S. Senator Mitt Romney.
Andrew Kaczynski is an American journalist and a political reporter for CNN. He became well known in 2011 by posting old video clips of politicians, often of them making statements contrary to their current political positions, to YouTube. He was described as "the [2012] Republican primaries' most influential amateur opposition researcher".
On March 3, 2016, U.S. Republican politician Mitt Romney delivered a major speech for the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the Libby Gardner Hall in the University of Utah. In that speech, he denounced Donald Trump, who was then the front-runner in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries. He urged citizens to use tactical voting in the remaining primaries and caucuses to maximize the chance of denying Trump a delegate majority.
Early in its history, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a series of negative encounters with the federal government of the United States. This led to decades of mistrust, armed conflict, and the eventual disincorporation of the church by an act of the United States Congress. The relationship between the church and the government eventually improved, and in recent times LDS Church members have served in leadership positions in Congress and held other important political offices. The LDS Church becomes involved in political matters if it perceives that there is a moral issue at stake and wields considerable influence on a national level with over a dozen members of Congress having membership in the church in the early 2000s, and about 80% of Utah state lawmakers identifying as LDS.
David Evan McMullin is an American political candidate and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. McMullin ran as an independent in the 2016 United States presidential election and in the 2022 United States Senate election in Utah.
Romney: A Reckoning is a 2023 biographical book about the political life of U.S. Senator Mitt Romney and is written by McKay Coppins, a journalist at The Atlantic. The book is largely based on Romney's reckoning with a Republican Party he once led, and his dismay at its political realignment in the era of 45th U.S. president Donald Trump. It contains many of Romney's interviews, private emails, text messages, diary entries, and documented personal grievances. It was released on October 24, 2023. It debuted at number 3 on the New York Times Best Sellers list.