Washington, July 1: Cable news network MSNBC has indefinitely suspended its top political analyst for calling US President Barack Obama a ''d***'' during live TV debate on president''s plan to tax the rich citizens.

Despite apologising for his comments, Mark Halperin, who is also Time magazine''s editor-at-large, was suspended after the White House expressed its anger to MSNBC.

Referring to a press conference yesterday in which Obama announced plans to tax the rich, Halperin said: "I thought he was kind of a d*** yesterday."

As soon as the show ended at 9am, executives called a meeting, and by 10.30am (local time), Halperin was suspended indefinitely.

"Mark Halperin''s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologise to the President, The White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air. Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst," the Daily Mail quoted MSNBC as saying in a statement.

"His comment was also sternly censured by White House press secretary Jay Carney, who called MSNBC officials to ''convey the administration''s anger. The comment that was made was inappropriate. It would be inappropriate to say about a president of either party," it added.

Earlier, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney had slammed Halperin, calling his comments "inappropriate".

"The comment that was made was inappropriate. It would be inappropriate to say that about any president of either party. And on behalf of the White House, I expressed that sentiment to executives at the network," Carney added.

Halperin began his career as desk assistant at ABC News after graduating from Harvard in 1987, and became its political director in 1997 after spending over 20 years at the channel.

While he was at ABC he founded The Note, an online daily tipsheet on American politics, which he now maintains at Time. com, and later became a regular contributor to MSNBC.

Last year, he formally joined the news network as its senior political analyst. (ANI)