Quick, Billy, 33... time to defend Kanye!!!
President Barack Obama appears to have dubbed Kanye West a “jackass” in off-the-record comments posted by an ABC News anchor Monday night.
Weighing in on an interruption made by the singer during the MTV Music Awards Monday, where West grabbed the mic from country music singer Taylor Swift, Obama appears to have echoed a relatively universal irritation.
“Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a ‘jackass’ for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential,” “Nightline” co-anchor Terry Moran wrote Monday to his followers on Twitter.
But because the remarks were supposed to be off the record, ABC quickly pulled them, and issued an apology.
“In the process of reporting on remarks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion of those remarks that turned out to be from an off-the-record portion of the interview,” ABC said in a statement.. “This was done before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologize to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again.”
Moran’s tweet was deleted, but is still accessible here.
On Monday night, West reappeared on the premiere episode of “The Jay Leno Show” to apologize for interrupting Taylor Swift at the MTV awards ceremony.
This video is from NBC’s The Jay Leno Show, broadcast Sept. 14, 2009.
