Another company has distanced itself from Mark Halperin amid multiple sexual harassment accusations leveled at the political analyst and “Game Change” author.
Halperin, who was suspended from his contributor gig at MSNBC on Wednesday, has now lost the publisher for his book about the 2016 presidential election.
“In light of the recent news regarding Mark Halperin, the Penguin Press has decided to cancel our plans to publish a book he was co-authoring on the 2016 election,” Penguin Press said in a statement tweeted by CNN reporter Oliver Darcy.
The untitled book was to be co-authored by John Heilemann, who had also collaborated with Halperin on “Game Change” and “Double Down,” an account of the 2012 election.
The trouble began for Halperin when CNN published five accounts accounts of five unnamed women who claimed that Halperin made inappropriate sexual advances while he worked at ABC News more than a decade ago
“During this period, I did pursue relationships with women that I worked with, including some junior to me. I now understand from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain,” Halperin told CNN. “For that, I am deeply sorry and I apologize. Under the circumstances, I’m going to take a step back from my day-to-day work while I properly deal with this situation.”
On Thursday, HBO also chose not to go forward with a miniseries based on the now-canceled book.
“HBO is no longer proceeding with the project tied to the untitled book co-authored by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann on the 2016 Presidential election,” the network said. “HBO has no tolerance for sexual harassment within the company or its productions.”
BREAK: PENGUIN CANCELS PLANS TO PUBLISH MARK HALPERIN’S BOOK ON 2016 ELECTION pic.twitter.com/ABPhaP21rz
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 26, 2017