Who is CNN White House Correspondent MJ Lee?
MJ Lee is an American political correspondent born in South Korea. She works at CNN as the White House correspondent covering President Biden’s news, news briefings, and white house events.
MJ Lee Age, Parents
Lee was born on March 5, 1987 in Seoul, South Korea. Her full name is Min Jung Lee (이민정). Her parents were affected by the Korean War and therefore sought to raise their children away from Korea. When her father saw a chance to educate her outside of Korea, he grabbed the opportunity and enrolled MJ and her brother in an international school.
Lee grew up in Hong Kong and studied at the Hong Kong International School. She then transferred to a boarding school in the United States in her junior year. In 2005, she joined Georgetown University and graduated with a degree in government and Chinese in 2009.
MJ became an American citizen in September 2016. She was rejected from a job offer when they found out she was on a visa. She has explained her process of obtaining her citizenship in a CNN article titled ‘The Day I Became an American Citizen‘.
Is MJ Lee Married
MJ is married to her husband Alexander Burns. They met while working at POLITICO and got married in 2013. Alex is also a journalist working at POLITICO as the head of news.
Baby
MJ Lee and her husband Alex Burn have two children Penelope born in February 2021 and Jamie born in 2023.
She announced the birth of their first child Penelope on Instagram with the caption;
“One week ago, we welcomed Penelope Lee Burns into the world. She surprised us by coming a little earlier than we expected, and already we cannot imagine our lives without her. Thank you so much to friends and colleagues who have already reached out with kindness and well wishes — she is doing great and @alexanderiburns and I are incredibly grateful. ❤️❤️❤️”
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MJ Lee at CNN
While MJ was a student, she interned at the South China Morning Post and The Washington Post. After graduating from college, she joined Politico where she was a web producer and later transitioned to a finance reporter.
MJ joined CNN in 2014 as a correspondent. She covered the presidential campaigns of both Trump and Clinton and later covered the 2016 United States presidential election. She also covered the controversial #MeToo Movement which ousted U.S. Senator Al Franken, Blake Farenthold, and former Staff Secretary Rob Porter.
In 2020, MJ covered the presidential election focusing on Elizabeth Warren’s campaign during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. She then covered Bidens general election campaign to the moment he won the elections.
In 2021, MJ Lee became a White House correspondent covering Bidens administrative and White House events. Since becoming a white house correspondent, Lee has reported on the Israel-Hamas War, the White House’s student loan debt forgiveness plan, and recent health concerns of the President of the United States.
MJ Lee Salary
MJ’s salary is not publicly known. Correspondents at CNN earn an average salary of between $70,000 and $300,000 annually.