Mark Halperin hired by bipartisan policy group No Labels

Former journalist Mark Halperin has been hired as a consultant for the nonpartisan policy organization No Labels, Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday.

“We have spoken with Mark Halperin about a short-term consulting project,” said No Labels senior adviser Margaret White in a statement shared with the news outlet.

“Staff members of No Labels, including CEO Nancy Jacobson and Co-Executive Directors Margaret White and Liz Morrison, have spoken with Halperin and believe a second chance is warranted in this case,” White added.

Halperin, the co-author of the 2008 bestseller “Game Change,” was political director at ABC News before becoming an NBC News senior political analyst and a regular contributor to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” However, NBC and MSNBC terminated Halperin’s contract in 2017 after he was accused by five women of sexual harassment while at ABC in the early 2000s.

No Labels did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Hill. Halperin could not be reached for comment.

However, White addressed Halperin’s history in her statement to Punchbowl. “[Halperin’s] treatment of female colleagues before he left ABC News in 2007 was reprehensible. He rightly paid a price for his conduct, professionally and personally,” White wrote.

“Over the last three and a half years, Halperin has worked to make amends to the women he harmed, to apologize publicly and directly to those willing to meet with him, and to do the work required of anyone who has significantly harmed others,” she added.

Since the controversy, Halperin authored a book called “How to Beat Trump: America’s Top Political Strategists on What it Will Take” and has appeared on Newsmax.

Halperin has contributed to No Labels before.

In 2013, he wrote a blog post for the group about potential post-presidential election challenges for then-President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney, who is now a U.S. senator from Utah.