MSNBC President Phil Griffin officially apologized to the Republican National Committee and its chairman, Reince Priebus, Thursday after fallout concerning an offending tweet from the cable channel's Twitter account, according to Politico.
"Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family," the tweet read.
"The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable. We immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it. We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet," Griffin wrote in a statement.
"I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended," he added. "At MSNBC we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change."
Earlier that day, Priebus had sent a reproachful letter to Griffin demanding an apology and banning RNC personnel from the network until an apology was issued. According to Politico, RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer sent staff a memo saying that Priebus had accepted the apology. Spicer also confirmed that the ban has been lifted.
"We appreciate Mr. Griffin's admission that their comment was demeaning and disgusting, and the Chairman accepted his apology. We will aggressively monitor the network to see whether their pattern of unacceptable behavior actually changes," Spicer wrote in the memo. "We don't expect their liberal bias to change, but we will call them out when political commentary devolves into personal and belittling attacks."
Read more at Politico.