Mark Evan Halperin (born January 11, 1965)[1] is an American journalist, television cable host, political commentator and founder of the interactive media platform 2WAY.
[2] Halperin and Heilemann co-wrote Game Change and Double Down: Game Change 2012, were co-hosts of MSNBC and Bloomberg's With All Due Respect, and produced and co-starred with Mark McKinnon in Showtime's The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, which followed the presidential candidates behind the scenes of their campaigns in the 2016 United States Presidential Election.
In 1982, before he began his senior year at Walt Whitman High School, he lived with a family in Japan as part of the Youth for Understanding program.
"[17] Alex Shephard, writing in The New Republic, criticized his coverage for being "totally fixated" on the horse race and for shallow analysis, and "that he’s wanted to carry Donald Trump's bags for years.
"[19] The Washington Post's Dana Milbank noted that in June 2016, on his Bloomberg TV show, With All Due Respect, Halperin asserted that "it's not racial" for Trump to attempt to disqualify an Indiana-born federal judge as a "Mexican" because of his ancestry.
"If there's a bit more of a national surge, and if it turns out that his ceiling is higher than the Clinton folks think...I think it's possible he (Trump) could find his way to 270" electoral votes.
"[25][26] Later that day, NBC News released a statement saying that in light of the allegations, Halperin would not return as a senior political analyst "until the questions around his past conduct are fully understood.
[30] In a lengthy statement published in response to the CNN report, Halperin denied several of the new allegations, including ones that he masturbated in front of anyone or physically assaulted anyone.
[34][35][36] According to a May 3, 2019, report in The Daily Beast, Halperin worked on repairing his reputation during the first quarter of 2019 with a goal of returning as a pundit on television and radio.
According to the article, Halperin enlisted the help of Michael Smerconish, Mika Brzezinski, and Joe Scarborough on an under-the-radar yet calculated professional rehabilitation campaign.
Around the same time, Halperin appeared on Sirius XM with Smerconish, where he said he has been working with the Fortune Society, a New York City-based nonprofit organization that provides essential support to the formerly incarcerated.
[38] After news broke about the upcoming book, there was widespread criticism and outrage, with Gretchen Carlson calling the deal "a slap in the face to all women."
Rebecca Katz, a political strategist said on Twitter, "you can beat Trump without supporting the career rehabilitation of Mark Halperin."
CNN political commentator Karen Finney called Halperin "a predator" and denounced publisher Regan Arts.
Eleanor McManus, who had written of being sexually harassed by Halperin as a 21-year-old, commented: "He leveraged his position as a prominent journalist to prey on women...
The program is described as a virtual town hall, where Halperin moderates discussions on political issues with pundits and ordinary people.
[43] Guests include former governors, senators, members of Congress, political consultants from both parties, activists, and fellow journalists.