Mark Halperin Obama 'D*ck' Comment 'Inappropriate,' White House Says (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON -- The White House says an off-color remark about President Barack Obama by MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin was inappropriate.

Halperin said during an appearance Thursday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he thought Obama "was a dick yesterday." The Time magazine editor at large was talking about Obama's performance at a White House news conference on Wednesday.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the comment was an inappropriate thing to say about any president. Carney also said he had expressed that sentiment to network executives.

Halperin quickly apologized on the air Thursday. MSNBC suspended him indefinitely hours later.

MSNBC also said Halperin's comment was completely inappropriate and unacceptable. The network apologized to Obama.

Comments

[janes10606]

07:09 PM on 07/04/2011

It's not the network, it's Halprin. He does not deserve a place on MSNBC....send him to faux news where he belongs.

[jsgaetano]

12:44 PM on 07/03/2011

Halperin has been a skid mark on the credibility of political news for a long time. It's great to see him get kicked out, hopefully forever.

I'm guessing he'll now be living in exile at Faux News for the rest of his life- they don't even pretent they have credibility.

[Dealerdeb1]

07:35 PM on 07/02/2011

of course they do, freedom of speech only works if you wallow at the feet of the annointed one.

[Sir Guy Grand]

01:11 PM on 07/03/2011

Dumb comment. It's about respect for the office of the president.

[MmeFlutterbye]

02:14 PM on 07/03/2011

fanned...I can't understand why there is an argument about the point you've just made.

[SueEll]

04:46 PM on 07/02/2011

Doesn't say much for Hallperin's intellect (and he's an editor?!!?) if his vocabularly is that limited. Doesn't say much for his business savy either -- he's just alienated a large portion of his subscribers at a time when magazines need all the readers they can get.

[ezdeath]

03:54 PM on 07/02/2011

kudos to MSNBC for swift action...too bad Ailes and Faux News could not act similarly when comedian Glenn Beck called Prez Obama a "rascist"

[John Starks]

10:19 PM on 07/02/2011

You know, I read this and after getting up off the floor, I also wanted to make an intelligent reply. However, after thinking about it I decided it was SO ASININE that anything i said in reply would just go over your head..........................

[magnetplanner]

11:16 AM on 07/03/2011

MSNBC had no choice but to suspend him immediately. The judgement call will be when to allow him back. I would say three months without pay minimum. Some network has to stand up for decorum. Heileman can cover for him. He's a better journalist and pundit anyway.

[LiberalFromDenver]

03:50 PM on 07/02/2011

Really, it wasn't appropriate analysis for broadcast, but other than that I don't see what the hubbub is all about. The guy expressed his opinion, which isn't bad by itself, but it's not a term that leads to any kind of substantive conversation. Schoolyard name-calling is best left in the schoolyard, and more appropriate for children.

[marvm]

04:48 PM on 07/02/2011

here is the what hubbub is about RESPECT for the office even though we have a blackman in the whitehouse, do you think if gwb was still in office would you expect these type of word to come out in the public or tv about is speech from the other day

[mollybeejay]

06:56 PM on 07/02/2011

Thank you marvm for expressing this so eloquently. Since the day President Obama was elected fairly in 2008, he has been subjected to this type of awful, racist behavior. Never, in the history of this country has any president been called as many vile, hateful, brutish, thuggish, horrific names as he has. The President has endured this with dignity and grace. The fact that a movement (tea Party) was started because a black man was elected president speaks volumes about the state of race relations in this country. The fact that people like Michele Bachmann can say we want our country back, speaks volumes about the state of race relations in this country. The fact that Mark Halperin felt free to speak like this on a national program speaks volumes about the state of race relations in this country.

[magnetplanner]

11:20 AM on 07/03/2011

You are correct. It is one more measure of disrespect right after a back bench Congressman yells "you lie" in the State of the Union and a Senator tells the President to take a Valium.

[MmeFlutterbye]

02:20 PM on 07/03/2011

Not for my kids!!!

[DrBulldog]

03:41 PM on 07/02/2011

Obtuse Obama: "Dick? ... uh, you mean Joe?"

[Dokkydok]

02:58 PM on 07/02/2011

It's sad that this kind of "news" gets so many comments. Why does anyone care that he called the president a dick? There is so much more going on in the world that is actually...you know...relevant.

[Nick3169]

02:27 PM on 07/02/2011

MSNBC also said Halperin's comment was completely inappropriate - but when he did not think he was on camera, he spoke his true feelings about the president. Mark Halperin is an ultra liberal commentator and not a product of the far right.

[Doyle Perry]

08:38 PM on 07/02/2011

There IS no "far right". Today's liberals claim everyone to the right of Karl Marx is "far right".

[NoQuarter472]

02:28 AM on 07/04/2011

Liberals dont know Right from "wrong".

[Dale Swingle]

02:12 PM on 07/02/2011

Considering the epithets directed at Sarah Palin and other conservatives Halperin's comment following Obama's partisan tantrum seem rather tame. Have all of you completely forgotten the invectives most of those at this site were gleefully hurling at George Bush? and now you want Halperin's head on a platter?

Obama was the one that made a fool of himself at the presser without any help from Halperin.

[Doyle Perry]

02:40 PM on 07/02/2011

Dale, you must not have been following these postings. The libs are denying that anyone ever threw hate-speech at President Bush or Governor Palin. They're claiming that all the hatred and vitriol (???) directed at Obama is worse. AND, that it's race-based.

[Dale Swingle]

03:12 PM on 07/02/2011

Not surprising. I've found that most of those on the left bear a striking resemblance to Holocaust deniers in disposition and powers of reasoning.

[feelingpuckish]

07:44 PM on 07/02/2011

I agree, some of what was said of President Bush was hateful and wrong. But does that make what Halperin said any less inappropriate?

[ezdeath]

03:53 PM on 07/02/2011

so what is the flavor of the koolaid today for the right fringe?

[Doyle Perry]

07:02 PM on 07/02/2011

Jack Daniels. Yum.

[JackDermand]

01:22 PM on 07/02/2011

He should be fired from Time. What a joke. No respect.

[mikies2u]

03:19 PM on 07/02/2011

You don't get fired for being right.

[Dealerdeb1]

07:39 PM on 07/02/2011

if you are right on msnbc then you are wrong LOL

[NoQuarter472]

01:53 AM on 07/04/2011

Richard sounds like a good tag.

[reveal7]

01:14 PM on 07/02/2011

With Mika's continuous cheerleading, it's understandable that Halperin thought he was in a locker room for a minute. Mika needs pom poms and a spandex uniform for cheering on her boys. You've got to give allowances to all the pundits, they aren't really earthlings. They're poodles from Mars.

[gettingitright]

12:43 PM on 07/02/2011

It seems it's anything goes when it comes to criticizing the first black POTUS. You can shout "You lie!" at the state of the union address without rebuke or reprimand. You can challenge his citizenship, his religion, his college records, call him a "d---", etc. Nothing is out of bounds. And these attacks are not from random yahoos, they come from congressmen, Trump, Halperin and the like -- people who should no better and have more class.

[goofy2]

01:18 PM on 07/02/2011

It could be argued that Trump is, indeed, a random yahoo.

[smilingasa]

02:00 PM on 07/02/2011

Spot On!

x2

[Doyle Perry]

12:41 PM on 07/02/2011

I have to laugh, that HuffPost lets liberals injudiciously throw around their obscene term "tea baggers", with no thought of censoring. But, when I do a posting which defines "tea bagger", it gets censored.

[smilingasa]

02:03 PM on 07/02/2011

Let me see if I got this right, The Teabagger sto/e their name from a group in Boston who didn't want to pay taxes so they dressed up as Native American while dumping the British tea in Boston Harbor and you are concerned about titles? Must be a Republicans because only a Republicans can be that SURFACE!

[jkb5371]

03:15 PM on 07/02/2011

The conservative group's name is Tea Party not Tea Bagger...your confusing your holiday weekend plans with the group's name.

[LiveMind]

04:37 PM on 07/02/2011

They called themselves that to start. It stuck. get over it.

[Doyle Perry]

07:07 PM on 07/02/2011

You're right, someone did. So if a black man calls himself the N-word, according to you it's okay for the rest of us to use it.

[Doyle Perry]

12:39 PM on 07/02/2011

In response to a comment I made about respecting the office of the President, whether you agree with the person or not, Loco48 said the following:
“And bush deserves every bit of critisism he is getting.

So, as a liberal, Loco48 believes its okay to attack the president publicly as long as you disagree with him or her. I disagree, but then, I'm not a liberal.

[mollybeejay]

04:35 PM on 07/04/2011

Doyle, again I will say to you. Nobody on this site is sitting in from of television camera, beaming out to millions of homes all over the world. Posting on this thread is like having a conversation with people at a party. it is not the same and no amount of your phony indignation or your crappy analogies will make it so.