MJ Lee

This article is about the American reporter. For the South Korean actress, see Lee Min-jung.

In this Korean name, the family name is Lee.

MJ Lee
Born	Lee Min-jung (1987-03-05) March 5, 1987 Seoul, South Korea
Other names	Min Jung Lee
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Georgetown University
Occupation	Journalist, political correspondent
Years active	2009 – present
Employer	CNN (2014–present) Politico (2009–2014)
Known for	CNN White House Correspondent
Spouse(s)	Alex Burns
Children	2
Korean name
Hangul	이민정
Hanja	李珉廷
Revised Romanization	I Min-jeong
McCune–Reischauer	I Minjŏng

Min Jung "MJ" Lee (born March 5, 1987) is a South Korean-born American political correspondent for CNN and is currently a White House correspondent for the network.

She has previously worked for Politico.

Early life and education

Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea and raised in Hong Kong, 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 with a degree in government and Chinese. During college, she interned for The Washington Post and South China Morning Post. 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 CNN. Since working at CNN, she has covered the 2016 United States presidential election (both Trump and Clinton campaigns); as well as how the Me Too movement has affected Capitol Hill, covering the allegations against ousted U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN), former White House aide and Staff Secretary Rob Porter, and former U.S. Representative Blake Farenthold (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. Lee covered the 2020 Democratic presidential primary with a focus on the Elizabeth Warren campaign, and the 2020 United States presidential election with a focus on the Joe Biden campaign.

In January 2021, Lee was promoted to White House correspondent under the Biden administration.

At APEC United States 2023, 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, coinciding with her coverage of the 2016 US presidential election campaign. She is married to fellow journalist Alex Burns. They have two children.