An NBC News reporter apologized after swearing on a hot mic on Tuesday morning, when asked about the delayed transition of power between President Trump’s administration and President-elect Joe Biden’s team.
NBC News correspondent Ken Dilanian was caught on air on MSNBC cursing when asked by anchor Craig Melvin to describe the impacts of the postponed transition of power for the intelligence community.
“Ken Dilanian has some new reporting on something that we talked about at the top of the hour: How the Trump administration is handling the transition with the incoming Biden team, or not handling we should say, to a certain extent,” Melvin said.
“This time it involves our intelligence community. Ken, what have you learned sir?” Melvin asked, while on a split screen with Dilanian.
Dilanian responded, “Oh, shit, f—.”
The camera then cut to only Melvin who then said, “OK, I think we lost Ken for a second. We’ll try to get him back there.”
Later, Dilanian apologized when he got back on air after Melvin said they experienced “technical difficulties.”
“First I want to sincerely apologize to viewers who may have heard me use profanity at the top of the last hit,” he said before discussing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s statement on not contacting the Biden team before he is recognized as the election winner.
Dilanian also tweeted an apology, saying he “was experiencing some technical difficulties and mistakenly hung up on the control room, though my mic still was on.”
“Perils of playing producer, cameraman and tech support all at the same time from home. #2020,” he said.
The General Services Administration’s (GSA) administrator has not yet confirmed Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, which in turn has delayed the transition of power.
Under the Presidential Transition Act, the GSA needs to confirm Biden’s victory before the transition team can have access to millions of dollars of federal funding for salaries, consultants and travel, in addition to being able to be briefed on intelligence.