Jonathan D. Karl (born January 19, 1968) is an American political journalist and author. Karl has covered every major assignment in Washington, D.C., including the White House, Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the U.S. State Department, and has reported from more than 30 countries, covering U.S. politics, foreign policy, and the military.
Karl is the Chief Washington Correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Karl served as the Chief White House Correspondent for ABC News from December 2012 through the end of the Trump administration in January 2021.
He is the author of the 2020 book Front Row at the Trump Show and the 2021 book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show. Both books are New York Times bestsellers.
In 2021, Mediaite named Karl one of the top 10 "Most Influential in News Media." The publication said, "Jonathan Karl covered many major stories this year as ABC News chief Washington correspondent, but it’s the reporting he dished out in his bestseller — Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show — and how that book propelled the news cycle for weeks that secured his spot so high up on this list."
Early life
Karl credits his passion for history and journalism to a time in his adolescent years when his family moved to South Dakota. While living in two adjoining motel rooms in Hill City, South Dakota, his mother and stepfather did an oral history project for the University of South Dakota, interviewing the men who worked to create Mount Rushmore. "I went along," Karl later recalled, "as my stepfather and my mom would interview these men, and hear about these experiences."
Karl graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College in 1990, where he was the editor-in-chief of the Vassar Spectator.
Career
Karl began his career as a researcher and reporter for The New Republic. In 1994, he became a reporter at the New York Post, where he covered New York City Hall. In 1996, he was hired to cover politics as a Generation X reporter at CNN and went on to become the network's Congressional Correspondent.
He joined ABC News in January 2003 as the Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent covering the State Department. He first interviewed Donald Trump in 1994 for a New York Post article about Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley's honeymoon at Trump Tower.
He worked for ABC News covering national political news, becoming the Senior National Security Correspondent in December 2005. In 2006, Karl earned an Emmy Award nomination for his coverage of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
Karl was named Chief White House Correspondent for ABC News in December 2012 and held that position through the end of the Trump administration in January 2021. He continues as ABC News' Chief Washington correspondent and co-anchor of This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Karl's writings have been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and other publications.
Although Karl is an ABC News correspondent, he has often appeared on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News in his capacity as an author.
Controversies
In May 2013, Karl was caught in a controversy when he wrote an article that claimed to quote directly from an email sent by a White House advisor. It was later revealed that the quote was inaccurately given to Karl by an unnamed source, and that he himself had never seen the email. Karl apologized for the error, and also for not having stated that the quote was from a detailed summary his source provided, rather than a direct quote from the email.
Books
The Right to Bear Arms: The Rise of America's New Militias
Karl is the author of the 1995 book The Right to Bear Arms: The Rise of America's New Militias.
Front Row at the Trump Show
In March 2020, his book Front Row at the Trump Show, written before the COVID-19 pandemic, was released. It debuted at number 3 on the April 19, 2020, New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction best seller list and spent 5 weeks in the top 15.
The book was released in paperback with a new afterward in March 2021 and hit number 6 on the New York Times Paperback Nonfiction best seller list.