This morning former ABC News political director, now senior political analyst and editor-at-large for TIME, Mark Halperin, called President Obama a “dick” 7 minutes into “Morning Joe.”
It wasn’t off the cuff. In fact, Halperin asked if the control room had the “7-second delay button” ready. Apparently, they didn’t because this is what went out over the air:
“I thought he was kind of a dick yesterday,” said Halperin, referring to Obama’s “posturing” during his news conference.
Joe Scarborough jumped in saying: “Delay that. Delay that. What are you doing? I can’t believe … I was joking. Don’t do that. Did we delay that? Did that work?”
“I hit it. I hope it worked,” said Alex, the producer, from the control room.
The conversation with Joe, Mika, Willie and Harold Ford Jr. continued for another 10 minutes, as the show tried to figure out if the delay, where Halperin’s use of the word would be ‘bleeped,’ had worked.
It didn’t.
17 minutes after he said it, Halperin apologized: “Joking aside, this is an absolute apology. I became part of the joke. It’s no excuse. I shouldn’t have said it. I apologize to the president and the viewers who heard me say that.”
- Video, via Politico, after the jump…