On Twitter, veteran political reporter acknowledges ‘conduct that was often aggressive and crude’, noting that ‘men harm women in the workplace’

Mark Halperin, the prominent political journalist accused of sexually harassing multiple women while he was political director at ABC News, issued a lengthy apology on Friday for “conduct that was often aggressive and crude”.

“The world is now publicly acknowledging what so many women have long known: Men harm women in the workplace … For a long time at ABC News, I was part of the problem,” Halperin wrote on Twitter. “I acknowledge that, and I deeply regret it.”

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Halperin is one of many powerful men who have been accused of sexual harassment or other misconduct in the weeks since the New York Times and New Yorker reported on years of alleged sexual harassment and assault by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

In his statement, Halperin said: “Some of the allegations that have been made against me are not true.”

However, he added: “Toward the end of my time at ABC News, I recognized I had a problem. No one had sued me, no one had filed a human resources complaint against me, no colleague had confronted me. But I didn’t need a call from HR to know that I was a selfish, immature person, who was behaving in a manner that had to stop.”

On Wednesday, CNN reported that five women had shared accounts of being harassed by the veteran political reporter during his tenure at ABC News. By Thursday, Halperin had been suspended by MSNBC, where he is a contributor. Halperin was also dropped by Penguin Press, which was publishing his and his fellow journalist John Heilemann’s account of the 2016 presidential campaign, and HBO, which planned to produce a movie version of the book.

The CNN report included anonymous allegations that Halperin had kissed female employees, grabbed one woman’s breasts, and pressed his erect penis against three women’s bodies, all without consent. Halperin denied the allegations of grabbing breasts and pressing his erection against women, but acknowledged that his “behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain”.

Since the CNN report was published, several women have gone on the record with allegations of harassment, including Eleanor McManus, formerly a senior producer for Larry King Live, and Lara Setrakian, who wrote in the Washington Post that she was a junior reporter working on ABC News’ election coverage in November 2006 when Halperin “kissed me and touched me inappropriately” during a meeting in his office.

The Washington Post on Thursday also published the accounts of nine women who alleged harassment by Halperin during his time at ABC News. The report described a pattern of coercion, in which female journalists felt they had to put up with Halperin’s behavior in order to receive desirable reporting assignments or advance in their careers.

Additional allegations surfaced Friday, when CNN reported on the accounts of four more women who said they were harassed by Halperin while he worked at ABC News. One woman told the network that Halperin had masturbated in front of her during a meeting in his office. A second woman alleged that he threw her against the window of a restaurant, then “lunged” at her in an attempt to kiss her. The woman alleged that Halperin called her soon after to threaten that she was “never going to be hired in politics or media”.

Speaking to CNN, Halperin denied masturbating in front of anyone, physically assaulting anyone, or threatening anyone.

In his statement, Halperin said that he attended counseling sessions for several years, and claimed that “did not engage in improper behavior with colleagues or subordinates” in his subsequent jobs at Time magazine, Bloomberg, NBC News and Showtime.



Halperin left ABC News in 2007.