US president Barack Obama has waded into the Kanye West debate, branding him a "jackass" for crashing Taylor Swift's MTV acceptance speech during an off-air TV interview.
West has come under scathing criticism from fans and celebrities alike for storming the stage and snatching the microphone from Swift as she collected the Best Female Video prize at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday.
After he hailed fellow nominee Beyonce as the true winner of the Best Female Video Award, fans and famous revellers booed the 'Stronger' hitmaker from the stage, causing organisers to ask West to leave the ceremony.
The President sat down for an interview with news channel CNBC on Monday and, during an off the record portion of the chat, aired his view of the West/Swift controversy.
Rival ABC reporter Terry Moran, who was present during the interview, took to his Twitter.com blog to 'tweet' about Obama's remarks, saying: "Pres (sic) Obama just called Kanye West a 'jackass' for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential."
Moran later removed the blog post and ABC bosses have issued an apology to White House officials for making the comment public.
In a statement, ABC executives say, "In the process of reporting on remarks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion that turned out to be from an off-the-record portion of the interview.
"This was done before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologise to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again."
The comment was recorded, however, and leaked onto the internet. Click here to listen to it.
WENN.com