Obama: "Kanye West Is A Jackass"

09/15/09 12:03pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Kanye West's outburst during Taylor Swift's speech at Sunday night's MTV Video Music Awards is officially a national concern south of the 49th parallel because now even U.S. President Barack Obama has commented on it.

Obama called West a "jackass" on Monday when asked about what he thought of the whole bruhaha during an interview with CNBC on Monday night. The problem was the President made the comment during an off-the-record portion of the interview which was not to be made public.

But ABC reporter Terry Morgan overheard the remark and immediately microblogged it on Twitter.

"Pres Obama just called Kanye West a 'jackass' for his outburst at the VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential," he wrote, according to Britain's Times.

The tweet has since been removed.

ABC later apologized to the White House for making the comment public.

"In the process of reporting on marks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion that turned out to be from an off-the-record portion of the interview," ABC News said in a statement.

"This was done before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologise to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again."

In case you live under a rock and have no contact with the outside world what what we're talking about, West jumped up on stage during Swift's acceptance speech for the best female video VMA and said he thought Beyonce should have won instead. He was booed at the event, promptly ejected and apparently made Swift cry as a result.

West apologized twice yesterday — once on his blog and another time on The Jay Leno Show. He deleted his original apology made shortly after Sunday's events, in which he still seemed to be defending his actions.

"I feel like Ben Stiller in 'Meet The Parents' when he messed everything up and Robert De Niro asked him to leave," he wrote in the second apology. "That was Taylor's moment and I had no right in any way to take it from her. I am truly sorry."

West said he had had a "difficult" day because he realized he had "hurt someone" when he appeared on The Jay Leno Show on Monday night.

"I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong and it wasn't a spectacle and it's actually someone's emotions that I stepped on," he said. "It was rude, very, and I'd like to apologize to her in person and I'm going to do that."

West said he realized what he'd done was wrong as soon as he handed Swift the microphone back and "she didn't keep going."

Here's West on Leno:

 

In the meantime, West announced dates for his Fame Kills tour with co-headliner Lady GaGa on Monday. The tour will run from November until late January.

You can see West and Lady GaGa here:

Nov. 10 Phoenix, AZ @ US Airways Center
Nov. 11 San Diego, CA @ Vegas Arena
Nov. 13 Las Vegas, NV @ Mandalay Bay Events Center
Nov. 15 Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
Nov. 16 Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center
Nov. 18 Sacramento, CA @ ARCO Arena
Nov. 19 San Jose, CA @ HP Pavilion At San Jose
Nov. 24 Vancouver, BC @ General Motors Place
Nov. 26 Calgary, AB @ Pengrowth Saddledome
Nov. 28 Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place
Nov. 29 Saskatoon, SK @ Credit Union Centre
Dec. 2 Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
Dec. 4 St. Louis, MO @ Scottrade Center
Dec. 9 Miami, FL @ American Airlines Arena
Dec. 11 Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena
Dec. 12 Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum Complex
Dec. 13 Norfolk, VA @ Scope
Dec. 16 Worcester, MA @ DCU Center
Dec. 18 Philadelphia, PA @ Wachovia Center
Dec. 20 Buffalo, NY @ HSBC Arena
Dec. 22 East Rutherford, NJ @ IZOD Center
Dec. 26 Hartford, CT @ XL Center
Dec. 30 Washington, DC @ Verizon Wireless Center
Jan. 3 Uniondale, NY @ Nassau Coliseum
Jan. 6 Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
Jan. 8 Ottawa, ON @ Scotiabank Place
Jan. 11 Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
Jan. 14 Auburn Hills, MI @ Palace Of Auburn Hills
Jan. 16 Chicago, IL @ United Center
Jan. 19 New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Arena
Jan. 21 San Antonio, TX @ AT&T Center
Jan. 22 Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
Jan. 24 Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center