From the time Weijia Jiang wakes up in the morning until she goes to bed at night, she is thinking about the president of the United States. As CBS News’ senior White House correspondent, Jiang follows the chief executive’s movements throughout the day and reports back what she has learned to viewers at home. It’s a unique role that takes up a lot of her time and brain capacity, but she doesn’t take it for granted, either. “Every day that I get to go to the White House and ask the president and other elected officials questions is a privilege because that is not something I could do in China without fear of the gravest consequences,” says Jiang, who was born in Xiamen and moved to the United States when she was 2 years old. “It is extremely profound that I can do that here as an immigrant.”
The 40-year-old has been covering the White House since 2018. In that time, she has covered two presidents, two election cycles, a few Supreme Court confirmations, global conflicts, and the coronavirus pandemic (in 2020, Jiang had a viral moment when she asked then-President Donald Trump a question about COVID-19 testing that he answered with a dismissive response targeting the Chinese community). She first caught the news bug at 13 years old when she won a contest to be a student reporter and anchor for Channel One News in Los Angeles. Jiang admired Connie Chung, one of the few anchors on TV who looked like her, and made a plan to have a career in news that surpassed even her idol’s. She also wanted to make her immigrant parents proud and got her work ethic from watching them work long days at their Chinese restaurant in West Virginia. “Watching my parents work on their feet for the majority of the day, doing backbreaking work, is nothing compared to my longest, worst day” doing broadcasts, she says.
Jiang, who reports on all CBS News broadcasts and platforms, including CBS Evening NewsWith Norah O’Donnell and CBS Mornings, is also on the board of the White House Correspondents’ Association and will serve as its first woman-of-color president for the 2025–26 term. She resides in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children. Here, how she gets it done.
On her morning routine:
If I’m on the evening-news shift, I go to work around 11:30 or noon and stay through 7 or 8 p.m. No matter my schedule, my son, who’s 2 years old, wakes up between 5:30 and 6 a.m. So when he decides to wake up, I’m up. He and his sister, who is 5 years old, are both in the same school. I love breakfast with the kids. It’s a simple one if we’re running late, but I made ube pancakes made of purple sweet potatoes this morning. We listen to peaceful piano on Spotify to set the day. After school drop-off, I check emails, review notes, and ensure the president’s schedule hasn’t changed. Then I take editorial calls with my various teams. I usually walk while listening because it’s the only time I’ll have to exercise.
If I have the morning-news shift, my schedule is very different. I wake up at 4:30 a.m. to read in and see if my script had changed. I apply eye masks that I keep in the refrigerator and my ice face mask to help with my appearance. I get to the bureau around 5 a.m. to get hair and makeup, then head to the White House for a live shot and cover all of POTUS’s events and movements through the morning. Afterward, I go straight from work to Solidcore or the gym.
On what people wouldn’t expect about her job:
Contrary to what some believe, we do write our own scripts. So I’ll be writing the script, getting editorial input and approval. And no matter what, your piece has to be finished and ready to air at 6:30 p.m. for the evening news.
On being elected president of the White House Correspondents’ Association:
I was the first woman of color to be elected and will serve next year. Your first two years, you are an at-large member because you have to learn the ropes and then, in your third year, you are president. It was an honor because you were elected by your peers in the White House press corps. Any time you’re the first to do something, there’s just an awareness and a weight in knowing that you have a responsibility to ensure you’re not the last. I think it would be a disservice to the American public and news consumers if the press pool, especially the White House press pool, does not reflect the diversity of our country.
On what it was like to be a correspondent at the beginning of the pandemic:
Being a journalist during this time was the most important assignment of my life because the information we were getting out to our viewers was helping them to make life-or-death decisions — no exaggerations. When we had to convey the information that researchers, scientists, and doctors were giving to the public, the stakes could not be higher. So there was no room to think about what this was doing to me or my mental health because it was almost a 24-hour workday every day. When I lay down, I lost sleep thinking about everything we still didn’t know. I lost sleep thinking about how I could phrase the question this way at tomorrow’s briefing, when I know the president’s going to be at the podium. How should I word this so that there’s really no wiggle room to spin out of it, because the answers are so critical?
On managing stress:
When I finally took some time to think about everything that we had gone through — mainly because I’m Chinese American, and at the time there was also a spike in Asian American hate crimes and racism — I was thinking about whether I was stressed. I was talking to my therapist, and she’s like, “I think you’re a stressed person.” Actually, no — I’m not. I’m very relaxed. I can handle anything. But with everything I was dealing with, she’s like, “I think that’s a perfect recipe for stress.” I wasn’t working out. I was eating whatever was before me. I think it’s essential to do those kinds of check-ins with yourself. And I realized I do need to build in time to take a walk to journal, to just go outside. This seems so simple. But as women who overload their plates on purpose, the irony is that we often forget to put something on the plate for ourselves. So now I’m very intentional about that.
On a tradition that is important to her:
Family dinners are very important to me. When possible, we eat as a family and talk about the best part of our day. I like to ask different questions every night: What was the best thing that happened today? Who did you help today? Was there a time that someone showed kindness to you today? We have these batches of dinner questions because I want my kids to learn how to engage in a meal and check in with themselves and their families.
On winding down at the end of the day:
I’ll numb my brain a little bit with really bad TV. I love Bravo. I love reality shows on Netflix as well as your standard comedies and dramas. I just discovered Baby Reindeer. Sometimes when I’m unplugging, I’ll listen to a podcast about politics and the news industry. I really like ThePowers That Be, the Peter Hamby podcast. I think it’s important to give yourself brain candy, too, which is why I like to scroll on my phone, watching totally ridiculous things on TikTok.
On who helps her get it done:
I have an extremely supportive partner. My husband is very involved. He’s also incredibly busy, so we get each other. When I have a crazy week at work, he’ll step in. When he has a very busy week at work, I might plug in more holes while he stays out later working. Full disclosure: We have a nanny, and that is a luxury. I acknowledge and recognize that we are very privileged to have that.
On the moment she felt like she made it:
Becoming a journalist was controversial in my family. The immigrant playbook is very simple. Here are the jobs you can choose from: doctor, lawyer, engineer, CEO. Journalist isn’t on the list. There was some tension with my father, who had told me since I was a young child, “You’re going to be a doctor.” So when I decided to be a journalist, he just couldn’t understand it. I think for me, personally and professionally, when my parents could turn on their TV and see me reporting on a national level, I felt like, Okay, I’ve made it.
Brittney Oliver , 2024-05-27 13:00:44
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