>> Mark Halperin, has been quietly working on this kind of career rehabilitation campaign.
And he's got the help of some media friends to do this.
And this is all, of course, if you don't remember, after a major sexual misconduct scandal.
So Halperin lost multiple gigs after several women came forward with the allegation that
he groped them, and made unwanted sexual advances.
Here is what his friend and former colleague Mika Brzezinski said about the accusations
at that time.
>> I've spoken to and heard from some of these women.
I feel their pain and I understand the difficult position they were in, because I've been through
enough in this business to know what I hear.
We are at a pivotal moment in history where unacceptable, harassing behavior towards women
will no longer be swept under the rug.
And yes, we do remain a nation of laws where everyone is considered innocent until proven
guilty, and nothing has been proven or adjudicated here.
I'll speak for both Joe and myself here, our hearts break for Mark and his family, because
he is our friend.
But we fully support NBC's decision here.
>> And then, just a couple months later, she was evolving a little bit.
You could tell she was kind of there in that video, then she was really there, she like
dug deep, take this, take a look.
>> Mark Halperin is more than willing to meet with his accusers, and apologize with them
face to face.
I've actually tried to offer him to them, they don't want to talk to him, they don't
want to talk to him.
>> There are some hypocrisies here, when things happen and men actually want to validate that
truth, that's important that we actually allow that, if we wanna grow as a society and learn
from each other.
If we just wanna strike people down for political motivation or for anger, we're not going to
get anywhere.
And I know I just said something incredibly, what's the word, explosive.
>> Truthful?
>> But.
>> Truthful.
>> I have- >> That's a great couple.
>> Right, wait You're crazy.
Just for a second there before we move on, it is not important when a man who has been
an abuser wants to validate his abuse.
It's not important, nothing about what how you feel is important, it's nice to say sorry,
and never do it again, but you're not the star of this, like
>> That's absolutly ridiculus, yes, I think it's also fine when someone abuses or harasses
multiple women to be struck down if that's what the women want, too often they're not.
That was just such a weird liike who came up with that?
Who approved, what in the world?
>> It seems like Mika herself possibly,
>> Came up with that.
Which makes me think that she's maybe among the worst possible spokespeople, and figureheads
for any form of feminism or enpowerment.
She's hawks at know your values, she's hosted conferences about women being valuable.
The Google Books summary of her book starts with, it's no secret that women have long
been overlooked and undercompensated.
Really, Mika?
Tell me more about that.
>> Right.
>> I think that you're exactly right, Brooke, about centering a man's, an abuser's feelings
in a conversation about abuse and how often it happens.
And the audacity to suggest that unless you want to sit down, and tell your abuser what
happened, that you're somehow not a valid victim, or what your experiences were weren't
valid, it's crazy.
>> She was in the same breath saying, I acknowledge that these were problems, he acknowledges
it.
But I'm gonna criticize you for not being willing to talk to him, and listen to him
and forgive him.
He's struggling right now, how dare you.
>> Yeah.
>> What?
>> First of all why are you fighting that hard for Mark Halperin?
>> We've got way better people in the world of political punditry and journalism like.
It's not like he is the, we need Mark Halperin's opinions,
>> Right.
>> Never once have I been like, where's Mark Halperin, we need his opinions now, we don't.
>> He's replaceable like any one of us in this industry are replaceable.
And I think that there are plenty of people who are smart, who have good viewpoints, who
have inside information, who don't abuse people.
>> And I follow Ryder on Twitter, and he had pointed out that not only is he replaceable,
but he is replaceable ten times over with what he was making.
You could get 10, 15 great journalists who have good values, and won't grope women.
>> I'll take some of it.
>> I'll even go on Morning Joe, I guess.
>> All right, I support that.
>> The way that she described the motivations of the people who had accused him, she gave
two options that there is like theoretically, that they're simply expressing the experience
that they had.
And then she gave two alternatives, that it's a political motive or just anger.
And both of those are so incredibly dismissive and condescending.
That it's a political motive, that what, they're just trying to take down Mark Halperin specifically.
It's not about their career and the threats and all of that and the experience that they
went through.
But then also that they're just angry, what should they be?
What experience should they or what emotion should they be experiencing, if not anger?
>> Right.
>> In this experience, especially, when after all that they've been through, the fact that
there is multiple women, that he can count on friends of his like Mika and Joe to come
to bat for him.
To use their platform, he's taken off their enough, they still have a massive show.
With a big audience and they're going to try to use that to try to rehabilitate him.
Both back then in these video clips, and then also possibly now as we're now learning.
>> Yeah, so let's get to now, cuz he's kind of come out of hiding a little bit.
He's back on social media, he's created a new blog, and last month he had a little radio
appearance, take a listen.
>> You said the first time I've spoken in any format for 17 months, I'd like to take
the opportunity to again apologize to the women that I mistreated, who told their stories
and who were hurt by me, that I've grown in my understanding of all this.
I know I need to continue to grow, I wasn't a perfect person when I made these mistakes.
I'm not a perfect person now, I'm happy to be judged by perfect people.
I wanna be someone who can work.
I have, as you said, a two-year-old son and I'm trying to figure out if I can do enough
work and have enough conversations that people would be comfortable with me being able to
work again.
>> Can we just say, you don't have to be perfect to know not to touch another person's body
without consent, like in a sexual way.
I don't, but it's, that was so condescending and it's like, still, you don't, you haven't
learned.
>> Mm-hm.
>> Yeah, this has been a conversation that's come up a lot now, just with the Joe Biden
stuff, Joe Biden, Anita Hill stuff, and with a lot of male celebrities who have gotten
me too'd.
When do they get to be forgiven?
When do they get to come back?
And I thought about this a lot.
I don't think that it's fair to make a blanket statement and say that any man who's ever
done anything non-consensual to a woman is banned forever from his chosen profession.
I think that there is an opportunity for real social progression, if the person that did
the bad thing weaves that bad thing into their public presence.
Louis CK is a great example.
If Louis CK's next half hour was mostly about, how bad a decision it was, what was going
through his mind, why he felt like he could act that way?
It could be useful to a lot of men.
But I don't think Mark Halperin's condescending screed is doing anything to help anybody but
Mark Halperin.
>> I think these people are not in jail, they're not dead.
>> Mm-hm.
>> They still have a lot of them have a lot of money.
So just, it's a privilege and a blessing to be able to have these types of opportunities.
And so, because nobody wants to hire you, there are so many women who have been victims
of these type of behaviors and who have gone to HR and been banned.
They're still sitting without careers on television.
There are so many young people, men and women who cannot find jobs and sitting at home,
and we're debating whether people who have done horrible things should be able to be
famous again.
And that's weird for me, there are so many people, the person that didn't touch somebody.
I'm cool with them never being on TV again, I don't know, like you didn't go to jail,
consider yourself lucky.
>> Right, that's an important point there, Mika's saying people are innocent until proven
guilty.
Yeah, if We're putting them in jail.
>> Right.
>> But I can make a decision about whether or not I ever wanna watch somebody's face
tell me about politics again based on whether or not I believe that they're a creep.
And I believe that Mark Halperin is a creep and I don't believe I care to hear from him
again.
And I think that another important thing to remember here is that nobody is going to jail.
Literally the court of public opinion is not a legally binding court.
It is just me choosing not to read a book or watch a show.
>> Right, good luck with your blog.
>> Yeah, and I get it, I mean, he talks about his kid, and of course, you want to work.
I'd want to work too, but it's not up to you, you can try.
You can try to rebuild out your image, but it's gonna be up to the people.
And in each case, we have to evaluate it, in his case, there were things that he did
physically.
There were threats that were made, that's gonna make people really uncomfortable.
And he can try as you say, like with Louis, to try to work it in, from what I've heard
of Louis's references to what happened-
>> Not working.
>> It's not actually what he's doing.
>> No, it's happening.
>> It sounds like he's doing the opposite.
>> No, it'll be the other thing.
>> Which, I was a fan of Louis CK for a really long time.
I would prefer if he'd gone in the direction that you had advocated for.
But, yeah, Mark Halperin, I guess you can try, you've got powerful friends.
I've got news for you, if they'd cancelled my show, and all of the sudden I was working
in an Indian restaurant or something again, Mika Brzezinski's not going to bat for me
and I never touched anybody.
>> I would.
>> So thank you, that's very nice of you.
>> Yeah, so I guess we'll see, would we really be shocked if he had a show at some point
again?
>> No, not at all, yeah.
>> Or a correspondence deal or he gets a book or something?
I would not be shocked by that