CNN's Phil Mattingly Opens Up About Becoming Chief White House Correspondent — While Raising 4 Young Kids

Doug Mills/The New York Times

CNN's Phil Mattingly has a lot to keep tabs on these days, both at the President's House in D.C. and his own bustling home.

The whip-smart political reporter, 38, was just promoted to chief White House correspondent for the network — a position vacated by Kaitlan Collins, who now co-anchors CNN This Morning. Mattingly had been serving as the senior White House correspondent since President Joe Biden took office in 2021.

The new gig comes as Mattingly and his wife, Chelsea, 39, are adjusting to their recently expanded family. The couple's youngest child, Paige, was just born in April. Their three older children, T.J., Carter and Brooke, range from 3 to 7 years old.

RELATED: CNN's Phil Mattingly and Wife Chelsea Welcome Baby Number 4: 'We're Extremely Grateful'

Mattingly is quick to admit that balancing parenthood and a demanding job is no simple task, but in this consequential time for politics, he wouldn't have it any other way. Since joining the CNN staff in 2015 he's covered Congress, presidential elections and an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — yet the daily decisions stemming from the Oval Office, he says, are critically important.

PEOPLE asked Mattingly about the challenges of his new role, and being an attentive father through it all. Below, our conversation with CNN's new top dog in Washington as he takes the reins of the White House team.

Courtesy Phil Mattingly Phil Mattingly and family

What are the biggest challenges of your new role in today's political climate?

Trust. It's not a challenge that's exclusive to the role or covering the White House, but I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking through how our coverage can connect with viewers and readers at a moment when they have a million different places to go for news and information. It's not a new problem. It's one with long-standing roots tied to and accelerated by a myriad of factors. But I think being clear-eyed about what it means is essential in this moment.

I'm not naïve enough to think one reporter or one team can address all of the issues. But I firmly believe that every day we go to work — every story we write, every television package we put together, every live shot we do — there's an opportunity to break through and deliver news that gives people a clear and unvarnished window into what's happening in their elected government. It's one centered on fairness, but informed by an inherent skepticism of people in power. There's no hesitation to call out B.S., but also no intent to tie everything to hyperbolic headlines that don't reflect what is almost always a nuanced and context driven reality.

It's also hard, and we aren't going to nail it every time. But attacking that challenge — embracing it, really — drives my whole approach.

CNN

Are there any particular issues that you're keeping a close eye on as the Biden administration sorts out its strategy for the second half of this term?

There are a ton! Part of what makes this job so great — and such a privilege — is the breadth of issues that fall under its purview. The obvious ones in the months ahead are how the White House shifts to address the new reality in Washington — Republicans in control of the House. There will be personnel changes and increasingly high-stakes negotiations over the very basic functions of government. Republicans have made clear they will bring a sharpened focus on investigations and oversight. Obviously, the biggest issue looming over everything is President Biden's decision on whether to seek a second term.

On the policy front, I'll forever be an economics nerd at heart and there are no shortage of big questions and decisions to make on how to navigate that in the months ahead. I can't think of anything that matters more to the American public.

But the administration is also grappling with an array of major foreign policy challenges, whether in the continued support of Ukraine or the management of the bilateral relationship with China, that will be defined by the actions taken in the next two years.

CNN

Donald Trump has played a central role in your career at CNN, beginning with his 2016 presidential campaign and carrying into the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. When he announced his third presidential bid recently, did any part of you wish you could return to the campaign trail to pick up where you left off? 

Honestly? No.

Look, I love the campaign trail — mostly because it's such an amazing opportunity to get out of Washington and talk to actual people who don't eat, sleep and breathe polls, horse races and whether the morning political newsletters tag someone as up or down on any given day.

But I also think a 24/7, 365 days a year focus on campaigns and elections is hugely detrimental to understanding that there are massively consequential things happening every single day driven inside the federal government. Agency rule makings and guidance, implementation of sweeping legislation, how the administration approaches foreign policy in an uncertain and increasingly tenuous geopolitical moment — there is nothing more important in my mind.

I watched Trump's announcement from Bali, Indonesia, where President Biden was attending the G-20 Summit. He'd just had his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Leaders were grappling with decisions and issues that won't just factor into the next campaign season, but will shape the world for decades to come.

There's no place else I would've wanted to be — and no assignment I'd rather have.

In April, PEOPLE was honored to announce the birth of baby Paige, your fourth child with Chelsea. How are your oldest three warming up to having a new little sister?

I immediately started smiling as I thought through this question. They've been so great. We're lucky — they're great kids, something I obviously attribute entirely to their mother. But even in a best-case scenario I couldn't have imagined they'd be as wonderful as they are with their baby sister.

I'm sure there will be plenty of days (or months? Years?) ahead when that's not the case, but they've acclimated to their new sibling like old pros. I'll admit it's been a bit of a relief — you simply never know! But it's also been such an enormous help in our crazy day-to-day lives.

Mattingly Family Phil and Chelsea Mattingly with daughter Paige

What's it been like balancing parenthood with the increasingly demanding job of political reporting?

To put in bluntly: it's hard. Anybody who tells you it's easy is lying — and that's not exclusive to being a reporter. That's parenthood generally. The long hours, travel and constant state of alert paired with fear of getting scooped by a competitor that come with my job certainly exacerbate that reality.

The truth is I'm blessed to have an incredible wife who is relentlessly supportive of what I do and carries a huge amount of weight inside our household — and all while maintaining her own successful professional career. I'm in awe of what she does, every single day.

Still, I'll admit that there's kind of a perpetual state of feeling guilty for missing bedtimes or dinners, something I've tried to counter by being much better at unplugging on the weekends and being as present as possible. My schedule means I'm usually at home in the mornings during the week, so I get to make breakfasts and pack lunches, then wake up the kiddos and hang with them before school. That's the best part of my day, even in the most stressful times.

More broadly, even if it's not always the easiest thing, I've found perspective is an invaluable asset. I've got four healthy kids, an amazing wife who is my best friend and I genuinely love what I do for a living. I don't take for granted how extraordinarily blessed that makes me in this day and age — or any day and age, really.