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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6835364.ece Barack Obama has called Kanye West a "jackass" for interrupting an MTV awards show to declare that the wrong person had won. The outspoken rapper was drowned out with boos at the Video Music Awards on Sunday night when he grabbed the microphone from the young country star Taylor Swift and announced that Beyonce had made a better video. Asked about the row during an interview with CNBC, President Obama appeared to sum up the national mood pretty well, albeit undiplomatically. The problem was that his remark was made during an off-the-record part of the interview which was not going to be made public. Terry Moran, an ABC reporter who was at the recording and overheard the comment, then broke the agreement by deciding to tweet it. "Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a 'jackass' for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential," he wrote. Mr Moran quickly deleted the tweet but it was too late. The Nightline co-anchor has more than a million followers on Twitter, many of whom had already re-tweeted his remarks. The network was forced to apologise to CNBC and the White House and said that it was taking steps to avoid a repeat of the incident. Meanwhile, West himself apologised once again for his outburst on an appearance on Jay Leno's new prime time talk show and said that he was going to take some time off for reflection. West said that he knew he had been wrong the moment he handed the microphone back to Swift, when he was bathed in boos from the audience. “It was rude, period,” West said. The star posted a second apology to Swift on his blog yesterday and told Leno that he wanted to apologise to her in person. West fell silent when Leno asked what his mother would have said about the incident, but finally admitted that she would have told him off. West was very close to his mother, Donda, who died in November 2007. “So many celebrities, they never take the time off,” he said. “I’ve never taken the time off to really - you know, just music after music and tour after tour. I’m just ashamed that my hurt caused someone else’s hurt." getting called a jackass by the president is an achievement LOL