Mark Halperin is an American author and former senior political analyst for MSNBC. He is also a contributor to Bloomberg Politics. He has recently hit the headlines after five women have accused him of sexual harassment. These accusations relate to the time when he was working for ABC News during the 1990s and through to the mid-2000s. Some of the accusations include touching a woman’s breast, propositioning women for sex, and pressing an erection against the leg of three women. Halperin has been forced to publicly apologize for his actions and step down from his daily working duties. Here are five things you didn’t know about Mark Halperin.
1. He Co-Wrote ‘Game Change’
Along with John Heilemann, Halperin co-wrote the book ‘Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain, and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime’. This was adapted into a television film with the title ‘Game Change’. It premiered on HBO on March 10, 2012. In the film, Halperin has a cameo role as he plays a reporter.
2. He is the Son of Morton Halperin
An interest in politics is something that runs in the family as Mark Halperin is the son of Morton H. Halperin. Now, he is the senior advisor to the Open Society Foundations and a public servant. However, he has served several presidents in administrations in the past. These have included Obama, Clinton, Nixon, and Johnson. He is an expert on the operation of government bureaucracies, foreign policies, civil liberties, and arms control. Halperin’s mother is Ina Young who was Morton H. Halperin’s first wife. They have two other sons together; David and Gary.
3. He Can Speak Japanese
Halperin studied at Walt Whitman High School and he spent two years learning Japanese there. During the summer of 1982, Halperin lived with a family in the Japan as part of a scheme called ‘Youth for Understanding’. This helped him to further improve his skills in the Japanese language. He left high school the following year.
4. He Was Once Suspended for Offending President Obama
While working at MSNBC, Halperin was suspended from his duties on June 30, 2011. He had appeared on the ‘Morning Joe’ program and ‘slurred’ President Obama which caused offense. Halperin was talking about a conference he had attended with the president the previous day and described him on the show as being ‘kind of a dick’. However, his punishment did not last long as it was just over a month later that his suspension was lifted and he returned to work for MSNBC.
5. Partner is Karen Avrich
Mark Halperin’s partner is Karen Avrich. She is also an author as she co-authored ‘Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman’. This 2012 history book is often simply referred to as ‘Sasha and Emma’. She wrote this book with her late father Paul Avrich who was a historian who specialized in the anarchist movement in Russia and the United States during the 19th and early 20th century. In 2012, the book was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Mark Halperin and Karen Avrich live together in New York City.
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