Two years ago, political commentator Mark Halperin fell from his pedestal after several women came forward and accused him of egregious sexual misconduct. Now he’s trying to return to the national spotlight, forcing the #MeToo movement to wrestle with an important question: How do condemned men such as Halperin earn redemption, if at all?
The former MSNBC, NBC, and Showtime pundit is scheduled to release a new book in November, titled How to Beat Trump: America’s Top Political Strategists on What It Will Take. It features interviews with more than 75 political strategists and experts, including many prominent Democratic figures, such as David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, and Donna Brazile, former Democratic National Committee chairwoman.
For many, Halperin’s attempt to reboot his career is alarming and understandably so. This was a man accused of threatening to tank female subordinates’ careers if they didn’t sleep with him, exposing his genitals and masturbating in front of a female colleague, and rubbing his erect penis against another colleague while he worked at ABC News. But what disturbs some Democrats even more is the willingness of party members to entertain Halperin’s rehabilitation.
“What message are all those people sending by being included in his book?” Karen Finney, a Democratic consultant, told Yahoo News, noting Halperin’s continued denial that he participated in any nonconsensual contact with women.
Halperin is hardly the first #MeToo man to attempt to regain his former notoriety (see, for example, Louis C.K. and, more recently, Al Franken). But he is forcing the #MeToo movement to choose between its philosophical convictions and political aspirations.
James Carville, a Democratic political strategist featured in Halperin’s new book, admitted he helped Halperin because of their mutual desire to defeat President Trump, as did Brazile.
“Much has been said or written about Mark Halperin’s failures,” Brazile said in a statement to the Daily Beast. “We have condemned him, disgraced him and shoved him away. We are still angry at him and will never cease to admonish him. After a lot of emails, tough times for sure, I wanted to go on the record with my answers about how to defeat Trump. Many of my friends today are disappointed that I answered Mark’s call, but I did so after he understood where I was coming from.”
And where, exactly, was Halperin coming from? If his book had been on any other subject, would Brazile have still answered the call? I suspect not. Opposition to Trump has become the defining principle of the Democratic Party, and for some, it’s all that matters.
Halperin’s publisher, Judith Regan, defended the book deal as an opportunity for Democrats to give a remorseful man a second chance. “I believe in the power of forgiveness and helping people when they hope for redemption,” she said. This is an important point. There is a broad consensus in the #MeToo movement that justice for offenders must be swift and retributive. But there is little agreement on what to do afterwards. Should they be allowed to return to their former careers or some semblance of it? And if so, how? What must they do to prove themselves capable of redemption?
For his part, Halperin has publicly expressed regret for his past actions. “As I have said before, I am sincerely sorry for the pain I caused to others. I had no right to behave the way I did, and I take full responsibility for my actions,” he said in a statement on Monday. But one woman with direct knowledge of Halperin’s sexual misconduct said a second chance requires more than a public apology. There must be a personal appeal for forgiveness and a chance for the victim to find closure and healing.
“You don’t just tweet ‘I’m sorry,’” she told Yahoo News. “You need to reach out to the victims and say ‘How can I make it up to you?’ Then, if they want to scream at you for an hour, you take it. If they want you to call someone who you bad-mouthed them to when they wouldn’t play your game, then you make the call and say they were actually good at their job. Or maybe you become an ally or a champion of women or take concrete steps that show how you have changed.’”
According to his victims, Halperin has done no such thing. Yet he’s returning to the national stage, assisted by 75-plus Democrats eager to pile on Trump. It seems Halperin unintentionally stumbled upon the recipe for redemption in the #MeToo era: the desire to stick it to Trump coupled with the willingness to write a 300-plus page book about it.
It matters little that Halperin is a man without principle, as long as he’s convicted about one thing: Trump needs to go. This is a pathetic standard that makes a mockery out of the #MeToo movement. What could be an important opportunity to wrestle with the direction of the movement, and the balance between justice and forgiveness, has become yet another bout of political showmanship. The Democratic Party will be no better off for it, and neither will Halperin’s victims.
