On Friday, MSNBC’s Morning Joe co-host, Mika Brzezinski, spoke about the suspension of Mark Halperin over allegations that he sexually harassed several women:
All right, before we go to break, there’s something I need to say. Over the past 24 hours, there have been more disturbing reports regarding Mark Halperin’s treatment of younger female coworkers. Behavior in these reports allegedly occurred one to two decades ago, and now, we’re looking at it, we’re talking about it. Mark and Karen have been a part of Morning Joe’s extended family for years — they’re our friends — and we believe it’s important to stand with our friends through even the most difficult of times.
But it’s even more important to demand the truth, even when the facts appear to be extremely painful. Yesterday morning, we woke up to reports of unnamed sources telling CNN that Mark made unwanted sexual advances and overtures toward them. [A] day later, more revelations pointing toward a possible pattern of unacceptable conduct.
I have spoken to and heard from some of these women. I feel their pain, and I understand the difficult position they were in because I’ve been through enough in this business to know what I hear. We are at a pivotal moment in history where unacceptable harassing behavior toward women will no longer be swept under the rug. And yes, we do remain a nation of laws where everyone is considered innocent until proven guilty, and nothing has been proven or adjudicated here, but we’re also witnessing a larger movement of women speaking up about sexual harassment because the fear of being dismissed or not believed is melting away. I’ll speak for both Joe and myself here — our hearts break for Mark and his family because he is our friend, but we fully support NBC’s decision here.
We want to know more about these disturbing allegations; we want to hear the stories; we need to know what happened; and we’re not going to avoid the story just because he is our friend. We’re going to cover it, and we’re going to pray for everybody involved.