Thread by @feliciasonmez

Late to this, but the news that No Labels has hired Mark Halperin is an outrage. More than a dozen women have accused Halperin of sexual misconduct. Halperin still refutes many of the accusations — so how can No Labels claim that he’s done his time and made amends? 1/x

https://twitter.com/jessicataylor/status/1384582971274014721

Here are just a few of the accusations against Halperin. These are all from a single article by @oliverdarcy in 2017. money.cnn.com/2017/10/27/med… 2/x

More from the @oliverdarcy article. 3/x

Another one of the accusations, made by my friend and former classmate. money.cnn.com/2017/10/25/med… 4/x

And another accusation from a journalist who later faced hostility from Halperin during a live TV interview: thewrap.com/journalist-emi… 5/x

Women have been harmed by Mark Halperin’s actions. They continue to be harmed by his efforts to rehabilitate his image, and by the efforts of organizations that are helping him to do just that. 6/x

If No Labels supports “second chances,” how about helping women whose careers have been threatened or derailed by Halperin and other men like him? They, unlike Halperin, were just trying to do their jobs. 7/x

I was never physically harmed by Halperin. But in my first journalism job in D.C., he propositioned me after I interviewed him. I was 25 at the time. “Are you finished with me yet?” he emailed me after the interview. I didn’t see it until hours later. I was still shaken. 8/x

Imagine the exhaustion of the women who have endured much, MUCH worse than that, and who have to be constantly on guard against seeing Halperin on TV. Seeing his name back in the headlines. Seeing leaders of groups like No Labels defend him based on his word and his alone. 9/x

I know that, even after his slimy email to me, I *still* had to interview Halperin several more times over the next year and a half as part of my job. My boss was depending on me, so I had to do it. And each time, I felt gross and afraid that he might do something worse. 10/x

Should women now, in 2021, be put in the same position that I was in back in 2007? After all the women who have bravely gone public about the ways he harmed them? And as Halperin to this day continues to deny and downplay many of his actions? I certainly don’t think so. 11/11