President Obama Weighs in on Kanye West

After the much talked about Kanye West-Taylor Swift incident at the MTV Video Music Awards, it seems like everyone has been weighing in with their opinion. One of the most surprising and most candid responses came from the President himself. According to the  Associated Press, the recently released audio and Twitter feed of President Obama brings up more controversy amongst journalistic standards than West’s recent outburst.

While setting up for an interview on CNBC, President Obama was asked off the record what he thought about Sunday’s VMA incident and he responded by saying :

“I thought that was really inappropriate,” Obama says. “What are you butting in (for)? … The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person. She’s getting her award. What’s he doing up there? He’s a jackass,” Obama replies, which is met with laughter from several people.

CNBC and ABC share a fiber optic line to save money, and this enabled some ABC employees to listen in on the interview as it was being taped for later use. A few employees from ABC tweeted the announcement of the now infamous “jackass” statement and it spread like wildfire across the internet.

ABC issued an official apology to the White House and to CNBC for the release of that information, citing that their employees didn’t know the conversation was off the record. Some people also argued that whenever a mic is in your presence, you should always assume that other people will hear it.

I don’t mean to get all conspiracy theory on this, but any adult with common sense would hear the nature of the conversation and rightfully assume that it’s not something he would want out there. It didn’t have anything to do with health care, law reform, taxes, etc. That entire discussion had off the record written all over it. And why are they spreading it like a 15 year old girl who wants to tell everyone about their first date? I don’t buy their story for one second, do you?

What do you think about the President’s statement regarding Kanye West? Do you think the recording was an accident?