After multiple accusations of sexual harassment and assault during his time as the political director at ABC News, Mark Halperin tweeted an apology on Friday.
“For a long time at ABC News, I was part of the problem. I acknowledge that, and I deeply regret it,” the journalist began. “As I said earlier in the week, my behavior was wrong. It caused fear and anxiety for women who were only seeking to do their jobs.”
It appears that Halperin has been reflecting on the accusations made against him. "In recent days I have closely read the accounts of women with whom I worked at ABC News. I have not read these accounts looking for discrepancies or inconsistencies," he said in the statement. "Instead, in almost every case, I have recognized conduct for which I feel profound guilt and responsibility, some involving junior ABC News personnel and women just starting out in the news business."
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Please read my statement below. pic.twitter.com/8ld8k8DC6O
— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) October 27, 2017
While Halperin still claims that not all of the accusations lodged against him are true, he concluded his apology with the hope that the "industry and society can create an atmosphere that no longer tolerates this kind of behavior."
In a statement to CNN, ABC News confirmed that no complaints of Halperin's misconduct were reported. In the decade since he worked there, he has gone on to work at a number of news outlets which he claims have a very different impression of him. "Those who have worked with me in the past decade know that my conduct in subsequent jobs at TIME, Bloomberg, NBC News, and Showtime has not been what it was at ABC," he continued. "I did not engage in improper behavior with colleagues or subordinates. If you spoke to my co-workers in those four places (men and women alike), I am confident you would find that I had a very different reputation than I had at ABC News because I conducted myself in a very different manner."
Halperin's apology comes after seven women accused him of sexual harassment and assault. They spoke with CNN under the condition that they remain anonymous because he still held an influential position in the industry. Since this news has come out, he has been suspended from making appearances at MSNBC. He is also leaving his role as a news analyst at NBC for the time being.
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