Did President Obama call Kanye West a “jackass”? It would appear that he certainly did, when asked about Sunday night’s incident at MTV’s Video Music Awards in an off-the-record interview.

The interview was apparently conducted by CNBC, but the revealing tweet came from ABC’s Terry Moran, and read “Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a "jackass" for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential.” The tweet was quickly deleted, but much like Google, which caches web pages, Twitter search does not immediately remove deleted tweets, so Moran’s remark is still visible.







ABC has since apologized for the incident in a statement obtained by Politico, but the story could turn into an important one when it comes to Twittering White House reporters. While as far as off-the-record Presidential comments go this one is rather insignificant, the leak sets a very bad precedent. Expect to hear more about this incident in coming days.