Music News Update: Obama Calls Kanye 'Jackass'

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home > music > Music News Update: Obama Calls Kanye 'Jackass'

September 15, 2009 6:23 PM
by Jenna Goldfarb

In what was meant to be an off-the-record interview with CNBC, President Obama reportedly referred to Kanye West as a “jackass” in reference to the situation that occurred between himself and Taylor Swift at the Video Music Awards on Sunday.

The statement was released via twitter by ABC reporter Terry Moran. Moran said “Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a ‘jackass’ for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT’S presidential.” Although the tweet was only posted for a short time, it reached out to more than a million followers.

Within 24 hours, it has been posted all over the internet and led an ABC spokesperson to issue an explanation on the political site, politico.com.

"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," explained the spokesperson. "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."

The White House reportedly had no comment on the incident and since then, it has been said that West issue two different apologies on his blog.