And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN, the Axviles, with your

host, David Axelrod.

The K-Copids burst on the national journalism scene in 2012 as the beat reporter for Buzz

Feed covering Mitt Romney's campaign for president.

He got attention in part because he was the only Mormon among the press corps covering

the first Mormon nominee for president of the United States.

But he also earned that attention through his incisive reporting, writing observations

of the Republican scene generally, which he sharpened into the 2016 race when some of his

pieces about Donald Trump.

Shall we say got the attention of the candidate?

The K was a visiting fellow at the Institute of Politics this month, and I sat down with

him while he was there to talk about Trump, Vice President Pence, and these turbulent times

in which we live.

McCay Coppins, good to be with you.

Thank you first for being a fellow at the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago.

Happy to do it.

Couldn't be more interesting times to have you.

I want to talk about all of that, but first I want to talk a little bit about you and

your path to punditry, which began in Massachusetts.

Tell me about that.

Yeah, I grew up in suburbs of Austin.

I think the students here keep asking when I decided I wanted to be a journalist.

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