Jonathan Karl is CNN's Congressional correspondent, a position he took after covering the presidential campaigns of 1996 and 2000. He logged hundreds of miles on Sen. John McCain's Straight Talk Express, and has interviewed such people as George W. Bush, Al Gore, Rudy Guiliani, Louis Farrakhan and Rush Limbaugh, and done stints covering the White House and the Pentagon. Assigned to the impeachment and trial of President Bill Clinton, he obtained an early copy of the Starr Report. With time to spare he has written for publications as diverse as the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, the New Republic and others. He is the author of "The Right to Bear Arms: The Rise of America's New Militias" (HarperCollins). NPF's judges wrote, “Jonathan has consistently provided excellent interpretations of the political dramas playing out on Capitol Hill. Days before the Senate Republican leadership had any idea about (Sen. Jim Jeffords' plans to bolt the Republican party) Karl reported that Jeffords was in discussions with Democrats about a party switch. He understands the inner workings of Congress and the politics of its most influential members. He is consistently ahead of the curve of Capitol Hill which distinguishes him from the pack.” Karl earned a bachelor's degree from Vassar in 1990, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was editor of the Vassar Spectator.
2001 Jonathan Karl
Jonathan Karl / CNN