Min Jung "MJ" Lee (born March 5, 1987) is a South Korean-born American political correspondent for

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

and is currently a White House correspondent for the network. She has previously worked for ''

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...

''.

Early life and education

Lee was born in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea and raised in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, where she and her brother attended Hong Kong International School (an American-system style school). In her junior year of high school, she moved to the United States to attend a boarding school and has never returned to South Korea since. In 2009, she graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

with a degree in government and Chinese. During college, she interned for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' and ''

South China Morning Post The ''South China Morning Post'' (''SCMP''), with its Sunday edition, the ''Sunday Morning Post'', is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group. Founded in 1903 by Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, it has remaine ...

''. Lee was offered an entry-level journalism position, but was then rejected due to being on a visa.

Career

Months after graduation, Lee began working at ''Politico'' as a web producer. By 2012, she was a finance reporter after a year on the breaking news desk. In 2014, she started working at

. Since working at CNN, she has covered the

2016 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2016. The Republican Party (United States), Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana Governor, Indiana governor Mike P ...

(both

Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

and

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has also been used as a given nam ...

campaigns); as well as how the

Me Too movement #MeToo is a social movement and Consciousness raising, awareness campaign against sexual abuse, sexual harassment and rape culture, in which women publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was init ...

has affected Capitol Hill, covering the allegations against ousted U.S. Senator

Al Franken Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American politician, comedian, and actor who served from 2009 to 2018 as a United States senator from Minnesota. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he worked as an ...

(D-MN), former

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

aide and

Staff Secretary The Staff Secretary ("Staff Sec") is a position in the White House Office responsible for managing paper flow to the President of the United States, President and circulating documents among senior staff for comment. It has been referred to as ...

Rob Porter, and former U.S. Representative

Blake Farenthold Randolph Blake Farenthold (born December 12, 1961) is an American politician and lobbyist. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Farenthold co-hosted a conservative talk-radio program before beginning a career in po ...

(R-TX) (all of whom resigned from their positions as a result of abuse or sexual misconduct allegations). She has also covered the Republicans' contemporary attempts to repeal the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

. Lee covered the 2020 Democratic presidential primary with a focus on the Elizabeth Warren campaign, and the

2020 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala H ...

with a focus on the Joe Biden campaign. In January 2021, Lee was promoted to White House correspondent under the

Biden administration Joe Biden's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 46th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Joe Biden, his inauguration on January 20, 2021, and ended on January 20, 2025. Biden, a member of the Democr ...

. At

APEC United States 2023 APEC 2023 United States was the year-long hosting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in the United States taking place in 2023. It was held in San Francisco. APEC United States 2023 marked the third time the United States hosted ...

, she asked US president Biden if he considered Chinese president Xi a dictator. Biden replied yes.

Personal life

Lee became an American citizen on September 17, 2016, on

Ellis Island Ellis Island is an island in New York Harbor, within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. Owned by the U.S. government, Ellis Island was once the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United State ...

, coinciding with her coverage of the 2016 US presidential election campaign. She is married to fellow journalist Alex Burns. They have two children. In 2022, Lee was named by

Carnegie Corporation of New York The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Since its founding, the Carnegie Corporation has endowed or othe ...

as an honoree of the Great Immigrants Awards.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, MJ 1987 births Living people South Korean journalists South Korean women journalists South Korean expatriates in Hong Kong CNN people Georgetown University alumni Politico people Naturalized citizens of the United States Mass media people from Seoul 21st-century American women journalists 21st-century American journalists Journalists from Washington, D.C. South Korean emigrants to the United States Journalists from New York City