Obama: Kanye's a "Jackass"

Rapper gets a presidential smackdown for his VMAs outburst

By Josh Grossberg Sep 15, 2009 4:15 PMTags

Kanye West had issues with George W. Bush, but it's Barack Obama who's put the rapper on the presidential sh-tlist.

And it's not for interrupting that healthcare speech.

An ABC News reporter last night Twittered an off-the-record comment the president made during a CNBC interview.

"Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a 'jackass' for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential," tweeted Nightline coanchor Terry Moran.

The tweet sparked controversy since it broke with the accepted journalistic tradition of not quoting from White House interviews before the cameras start rolling. An hour later, the post was removed and ABC News quickly offered a mea culpa.

"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."

On the bright side, Kanye might have Moran to keep him company in Gitmo.

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