Mark Halperin Signs Book Deal After 2017 Sexual Harassment Allegations

Disgraced political pundit Mark Halperin has reportedly signed a book deal, his first major project since facing several sexual harassment allegations in 2017.

Publisher Regan Arts is expected to announce the book, “How to Beat Trump: America’s Top Political Strategists on What It Will Take,” on Monday, Politico’s Playbook newsletter reported on Sunday. Regan Arts did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Halperin reportedly interviewed more than 75 top Democratic strategists for the book, which is scheduled to release in November. Among those included are David Axelrod, Donna Brazile and Kathleen Sebelius, according to Playbook.

The book deal comes two years after a dozen women accused the veteran journalist and then-MSNBC senior political analyst of sexually harassing them when he was in a position of power at ABC News, and when the women were younger and newer to the industry. 

Five women told CNN in October 2017 that Halperin allegedly pressed his genitals against them and groped their breasts. At least seven additional women came forward with harassment or assault allegations. He reportedly masturbated in front of a female ABC News employee, and threw another woman against a window before trying to kiss her. 

Halperin, 52, apologized soon after for the “pain and anguish” his actions caused, though he denied some of the allegations. He released a statement that read in part, “The world is now publicly acknowledging what so many have long known: Men harm women in the workplace.”

Halperin worked at ABC News for nearly two decades before leaving in 2007. He was then an editor-at-large for Time magazine before MSNBC hired him in 2011 as a senior political analyst. He also worked for Bloomberg News during the 2016 presidential race. 

NBC News and MSNBC terminated their contracts with Halperin after the allegations surfaced. Halperin was also fired from Showtime’s “The Circus.” Penguin Books dropped the third installment of his “Game Change” book series that he had co-authored with John Heilemann, which was slated to cover the 2016 election. HBO also cancelled a miniseries based on the book. 

But like many powerful figures accused  at the peak of the Me Too movement, Halperin has recently begun to reemerge in the public sphere, starting a political newsletter  and appearing several times on Michael Smerconish’s SiriusXM radio show, once to downplay  presidential candidate Joe Biden’s problematic history with women.

A spokesperson for NBC and MSNBC told HuffPost that Halperin will not be allowed to promote his book on its properties.

An ABC spokesperson also said that the network will not be booking him.

Halperin’s other former employers — Bloomberg and Time — did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

CNN’s Oliver Darcy reported Sunday that CNN said Halperin would not be welcome on that network to promote the new book. 

Eleanor McManus, one of Halperin’s accusers, told The Daily Beast  that publishing his 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.”

Many journalists and others in the media industry took to Twitter on Sunday to express outrage at Halperin’s attempted career comeback, and at the fact that so many Democratic heavyweights agreed to speak with him despite the numerous allegations against him.

This piece has been updated to include responses from NBC/MSNBC and ABC.