Mark Halperin, a political pundit accused by numerous women of groping and making unwanted sexual advances, has a new book coming out which he wrote with the help of dozens of prominent Democratic political operatives.
Many of those operatives are in the line of fire now, as their voices lend Halperin and his project legitimacy some feel he should have lost, according to the Daily Beast.
One, David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, expressed regret that he participated in the project at all.
By answering Halperin’s questions, I did not in any way mean to excuse his past, egregious behavior and, in retrospect, I regret responding at all.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) August 18, 2019
Another, former DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile, said that she wanted her strategic advice included in the book, called How to Beat Trump: America’s Top Political Strategists on What It Will Take.
“Much has been said or written about Mark Halperin’s failures. We have condemned him, disgraced him and shoved him away. We are still angry at him and will never cease to admonish him,” Brazile told The Daily Beast. “After a lot of emails, tough times for sure, I wanted to go on the record with my answers about how to defeat Trump. Many of my friends today are disappointed that I answered Mark’s call, but I did so after he understood where I was coming from.”
For at least one of Halperin’s alleged victims, the biggest insult is that Halperin got a book deal in the first place.
“He leveraged his position as a prominent journalist to prey on women. He has yet to take responsibility for his actions by apologizing to his victims or demonstrating genuine contrition,” Eleanor McManus, cofounder of PR firm Trident DMG, said. “Giving him a book once again puts him in a position of authority and that is a slap in the face to all the women that he has victimized.”
