Story highlights The comment was part of a longer Twitter spat between the two

HUD Secretary Ben Carson offered his apologies to the journalist

Washington (CNN) A Housing and Urban Development official with strong ties to the President has apologized for calling a member of the press "Miss Piggy" on Twitter Wednesday night.

"I hear #MissPiggys still on a rampage. Gee, I must've struck a nerve, @AprilDRyan! #BankruptBlogger," Lynne Patton, the HUD administrator for a region which encompasses New York and New Jersey, tweeted from her personal account on Wednesday.

The now-deleted tweet was aimed at April Ryan, the Washington bureau chief of American Urban Radio Networks who also is a CNN political analyst.

Later that evening, she said she deleted the tweet "by choice."

"No one from this Administration contacted me. It was beneath me & I apologize to @AprilDRyan. My parents raised me to respect others & I regret my response. I apologize to them, @SecretaryCarson & the Trump family. They deserved better," she wrote

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