Mark Halperin returned from a two-year media exile to apologize for sexually harassing women, and weigh in on allegations of inappropriate touching by former Vice President Joe Biden.
The former MSNBC and Bloomberg pundit was fired in spring 2017 following accusations of sexual misconduct from multiple women during the time he worked at ABC News. Since then, Halperin has not given a major interview, posted a tweet, or publicly opined on politics.
In a 25 minute-long interview on Sirius XM with host Michael Smerconish, the Game Change author reiterated his apology to the women he harassed, as well as to his colleagues and family.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I know that I’ve grown in my understanding of all this, I know I need to continue to grow, I wasn’t a perfect person when I made these mistakes, I’m not a perfect person now, I’m happy to be judged by perfect people,” he said.
Halperin explained that in the years since his ouster, he has been working with the Fortune Society, a New York nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated individuals acclimate to life outside of prison, including preparing people for job interviews and finding housing.
But he also said that he’s had “hundreds” of conversations with women who have been harassed “to really understand why it’s so painful” to experience workplace harassment.
The goal of these conversations was to try and reach a point where he could return to work and make his two-year-old son proud.
“I want my son to grow up respecting me and seeing in me a fuller person than what happened to me 17 months ago,” Halperin said.
While Smerconish led the interview with questions about Halperin’s life and reflections on his mistakes, he also quizzed the former prominent pundit on his opinions on issues of the day—including one related to sexual misconduct.
When asked about Biden’s alleged inappropriate touching, Halperin noted that some people likely weren’t “the least bit interested in what I have to say about a topic like this,” and then offered a pundit-like assessment.
“I think this is a bit of a distraction. As serious as the charges are, and then as important as this debate is, I think Joe Biden is, despite his standing in the polls, is an extremely overrated candidate,” he said.
