John King is an American news anchor. He is CNN's chief national correspondent, based in Washington, DC, and is anchor of its roundtable political discussion program Inside Politics. He is the former anchor of State of the Union, as well as John King, USA, which appeared weeknights at 7pm/ET on CNN before being canceled.
Personal life
King was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He is of Irish descent. He attended Boston Latin School, and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Rhode Island. John King and Jean Makie, his first wife, have two children, named Noah and Hannah. On May 25, 2008, King married his second wife, fellow CNN anchor Dana Bash. Before marrying Bash, King converted to Judaism, Bash's religion. Bash and King had a son, Jonah, in June 2011. The couple separated in March 2012.
Career
In 1985, King joined the Associated Press where he began as a writer. In 1991, King was named chief political correspondent and headed the AP's political coverage of the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. Also in 1991, King won the top reporting prize from the Associated Press Managing Editors' Association for his coverage of the Gulf War in Kuwait. In 1997, King joined CNN where he served as the senior White House correspondent from 1999 to 2005. In 2005, King was named CNN's chief national correspondent, a position he still holds. He currently anchors the Sunday morningnews programInside Politics, which features a rotating roundtable of members of the media who share their insights of current political topics with King. He frequently appears on the nightly news programsThe Situation Room and Anderson Cooper 360° and sometimes fills in as anchor. King also uses the Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall, nicknamed the "Magic Wall" or "Magic Map." First used during the primaries of the 2008 presidential campaign, it allows him to display and manipulate various graphics and maps relating to poll and election results. He and the Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall have both been featured in a Daily Show segment. Just prior to the 2009 US presidential inauguration, King began hosting his new talk showState of the Union, which replaced CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. With Lou Dobbs' sudden resignation from the network on November 12, 2009, CNN announced that King would take over Dobbs' timeslot in early 2010. On January 31, 2010, King announced that CNN's senior political reporter, Candy Crowley, would replace him as anchor of State of the Union. King began hosting his new weeknight show on March 22, 2010, called John King, USA. On May 2, 2011, John King was the CNN anchor who confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden to that network's viewers. On January 19, 2012, King moderated a Republican Presidential debate before the South Carolina Primary. John King, USA was canceled in early 2012, with the final episode airing on June 29, 2012. On April 17, 2013, King, citing law enforcement sources, erroneously reported that a suspect in the April 15, 2013, bombing at the Boston Marathon had been identified by police and that the suspect was a dark-skinned male. King was the first to erroneously report on this identification of a suspect; other news outlets, such as Fox News, soon erroneously reported that a suspect had been arrested. John King currently hosts the CNN morning show "Inside Politics".
