Obama's Kanye Criticism Spreads on Twitter

By: Stephanie Condon
Topics: White House

(AP Photo)

Updated at 6 p.m. ET

Word quickly spread online on Tuesday night that President Obama weighed in on musician Kanye West's outburst at the MTV VMA Awards on Sunday night, calling the infamously loose-tongued star a "jackass."

The president made the comment during a portion of an interview with CNBC that was supposed to be off the record.

The entertainment Web site TMZ obtained a recording of the comment. President Obama can be heard saying, "I thought that was really inappropriate... The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person, she's getting her award, what's he doing up there? He's a jackass."

Though the remark was not reportable, ABC News anchor Terry Moran made note of it on the social networking site Twitter, writing, "Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a 'jackass' for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential."

With more than 1 million Twitter users following Moran's comments on the micro-blogging site, the "tweet" quickly spread, even though Moran promptly removed it. An ABC spokesperson gave the following explanation to Politico:

"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. 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."

Mr. Obama's comment came after West interrupted the acceptance speech of musician Taylor Swift at the MTV awards show. West, who is known for his outbursts, once said on live television that "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

Mr. Obama may have had some empathy for Swift after experiencing his own interruption last week, during an address to Congress, from Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.). The two separate outbursts were combined in a humorous Web video. Still, the president should know a thing or two about the consequences of commenting on affairs he is not involved in.

Stephanie Condon
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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by DocD--2008 September 15, 2009 5:37 PM EDT: He is a jackass and the reporter should be fired. Off the record is just that, and to repeat anything that is off the record is a violation of journalism rules period. He should never again be in the presence of the President or anyone else of importance, go find a new career.; Reply to this comment


by taxchurches September 15, 2009 4:27 PM EDT: I find it moderately disturbing that the president would give a f*ck about something as inconsequential as entertainment news.; Reply to this comment


by independentmale September 15, 2009 3:06 PM EDT: Now Terry Moran is the latest "jackass", and should have his beat changed to cover the most recent ex-governor of Illinois!; Reply to this comment


by crazy grandpasam September 15, 2009 2:59 PM EDT: would that be the pot calling the kettle black?; Reply to this comment


by pandamonium6 September 15, 2009 2:05 PM EDT: Funny...ABC is not reporting on this; Reply to this comment


by document7 September 15, 2009 1:32 PM EDT: HARUMPH!; Reply to this comment

by woeisme1 September 15, 2009 1:23 PM EDT

by Joe_NY_15 September 15, 2009 1:09 PM EDT
Didn't Obama learn not to comment on private issues that have nothing to do with his administration ?

what did I expect from an unqualified amateur community organizer posing as a President.
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by filmguy107 September 15, 2009 1:14 PM EDT

dude...I suppose you're a qualified professional community organizer. Wow! Must be cool....
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He's nothing but a well qualified professional troll.

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by taxchurches September 15, 2009 4:32 PM EDT: Actually, Obama isn't "posing" as anything. He IS the president. You may have missed it, there was an election back in 2008. By the way, just to help out, "president" isn't capitalized unless it is referring to a specific. Such as "President Obama." Always glad to help out the short attention-spanned illiterates.


by tkubal2 September 15, 2009 1:16 PM EDT: Outrageous! Terry Moran should be Fired!; Reply to this comment

by woeisme1 September 15, 2009 1:14 PM EDT

Kanye is a moron....like some from NY who post here. If I would have been her, I would have grabbed that mic right back and told him where to go.

What audacity this punk has. Reminds me of the republican extremists.

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