Many celebrities have expressed their disapproval of Kanye West’s outburst at the MTV 2009 Video Music Awards, most of them taking to their Twitter pages to do so and downright call out the rapper for being an insensitive bastard, in more or less words. Yesterday, it emerged that President Barack Obama also had some harsh words for Kanye during a recent press meeting – and it’s all been caught on tape, as TMZ can confirm.

Obama called Kanye a “jack[expletive],” but, in his defense, it wasn’t supposed to be a public statement or anything even remotely close to it, as it was said as part of an off-the-record discussion with several representatives of the media. In the audio just surfaced – and posted below –, the President can be heard saying that Taylor Swift is a sweet girl who deserved her award (for Best Female Video) and that Kanye West had no right to be up on the stage with her at the same time.

He then goes on to say very matter-of-factly that, “He’s a jack[expletive],” to which remark the audience bursts out in laughter. “Give the President a break,” Obama adds when he realizes some may take the comment and go public with it – which they did, as we also reported yesterday, with an ABC news correspondent taking to Twitter to tell the world that the US President also had something to say about the Kanye West scandal.

Obama then goes to explain that he wouldn’t want to get media attention for his remark, recalling the “fly incident” that took place during a televised interview, when he killed a fly and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) got upset over it and told him to publicly apologize for it. Unfortunately, Obama’s wish of having his remark out of the media did not come true, even if ABC immediately apologized for the correspondent’s Tweet.

Kanye West, as fans must already know, is now getting a lot of heat for interrupting Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech to tell the audience that Beyonce should have won because she had “one of the best videos of all time.” Since the award ceremony on Sunday, Kanye has apologized to Taylor on various occasions, but, by the looks of things, the scandal is not about to go away anytime soon.