After Sexual Harassment, Assault Accusations, Mark Halperin Roasted for Book Deal

Less than two years ago, Mark Halperin was accused of multiple accounts of sexual harassment and physical assault. Numerous women have come forward and accused Halperin of unwanted touching, inappropriate comments and aggressive behavior toward them.

He lost his jobs on TV as a political commentator and an HBO project based on “Game Change,” his best-selling book about the 2008 presidential election.

Despite that, Halperin has managed to land a juicy book deal with Regan Arts about the 2020 race featuring interviews with dozens of Democratic strategists, Politico reported. The book will be called “How to Beat Trump: America’s Top Political Strategists on What It Will Take,” due out in November.

“Until Mark demonstrates any understanding of how destructive his behaviors were to so many, he doesn’t deserve another platform,” Dianna Goldberg May, who has accused Halperin of repeatedly harassing her as a researcher at ABC News in 1994, told The Washington Post. “Those promoting this book, profiting from it and supporting Mark by speaking with him are on the wrong side of history.”

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Halperin has denied all of the allegations but did admit enough wrongdoing to say that he was sorry for “behavior” that was “inappropriate and caused others pain.”

Regan Arts has faced fierce backlash for agreeing to publish the book. In response, the publisher said that after years of sexual harassment and physical assault, Halperin deserved this book deal as a “second chance.”

“I do not in any way, shape, or form condone any harm done by one human being to another. I have also lived long enough to believe in the power of forgiveness, second chances, and offering a human being a path to redemption,” the head of Regan Arts, Judith Regan, told Politico.

The Twitter world, and the regular world at large, does not seem to agree that Halperin has done anything close to deserving a second chance.

“He leveraged his position as a prominent journalist to prey on women. He has yet to take responsibility for his actions by apologizing to his victims or demonstrating genuine contrition,” Eleanor McManus, who came forward in 2017 with allegations of harassment by Halperin, said in a statement. “Giving him a book once again puts him in a position of authority and that is a slap in the face to all the women that he has victimized.”

Related Article: Boy Scouts Conspired to Keep Hundreds of Sexual Abuse Complaints Secret: Lawsuit

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