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MSNBC's Martin Bashir 'on vacation' after Sarah Palin remarks

Martin Bashir, the MSNBC host who has come under fire for the controversial remarks he made about Sarah Palin, is "on vacation" and will not host his namesake afternoon program on Monday, POLITICO has learned.

Sources at the network said Bashir had been temporarily suspended from the network following graphic remarks he made last month about the former governor from Alaska. In that segment, Bashir suggested that Palin should be forced to endure slavery like conditions, including the consumption of feces.

MSNBC spokesperson Lauren Skowronski told a different story: "He’s still out on vacation," she wrote in an email. Asked multiple times when Bashir would return from vacation, Skowronski did not respond.

(WATCH - On Media: MSNBC leans backwards)

On Nov. 15, Bashir called Palin "a world class idiot" because she made a comparison to slavery while discussing U.S. debt to China. The host then read an excerpt from the diary of a former plantation manger who wrote of forcing one slave to "S-H-I-T" in another slave's mouth, and said "if anyone truly qualified for a dose of [such] discipline... then she would be the outstanding candidate." Bashir later apologized to Palin and to his viewers for the remarks, calling them "deeply offensive."

Last week, MSNBC ended Alec Baldwin's after suspending him for homophobic comments he made to a New York Post photographer. In an interview with the website Gothamist, Baldwin criticized MSNBC for allowing Bashir to stay on the air.