Kaylee Hartung Returning to Disney Umbrella As ABC News Correspondent

Kaylee Hartung is joining ABC News as a correspondent, a spokesperson for the network has confirmed to The Big Lead. Hartung was previously a sideline reporter for ESPN doing college football and other sports, and joined CNN in March of 2017.

At CNN, Hartung covered the incidents in Charlottesville, mass shootings in Parkland and Sutherland Springs, a number of natural disasters including wildfires in California and three hurricanes, and the death of George HW Bush. At ABC, she will be based in New York and continue to cover a wide variety of stories, across all the network’s platforms.

Earlier this morning, ABC News President James Goldston’s sent the following email to the network’s staff announcing Hartung’s arrival:

Team, 

Please welcome Kaylee Hartung, our new ABC News correspondent based in New York, who starts today.

Kaylee joins us from CNN, where she was a correspondent based in Atlanta.  

She is a versatile and skilled journalist.  Kaylee reported from the streets of Charlottesville when a white nationalist plowed through a crowd and killed Heather Heyer and returned a year later to interview her mother about the aftermath of the tragic events.  She covered the developments of the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race and the 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama, interviewed the grieving survivors of the Parkland and Sutherland Springs shootings and reported on extreme weather events including Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and wildfires in Malibu and Paradise, CA. 

Prior to joining CNN two years ago, Kaylee was an Emmy award-winning reporter for ESPN, covering marquee college sporting events such as the College Football Playoff, the men’s College World Series and the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments.  She got her start in news working for Bob Schieffer at Face the Nation where she worked on his team covering the 2008 presidential election.

In her spare time the Louisiana native can be found cheering on the LSU tigers, traveling or reminiscing on her former side job as a backup singer in Schieffer’s country music band.

Please join me in welcoming Kaylee back into the Disney family.

James