CNN's Chris Cuomo has apologized for saying being called 'fake news' as a journalist is the equivalent to someone using the 'n-word' as a racial slur.

Cuomo made the remarks during a radio interview with Michael Smerconish on SiriusXM POTUS on Thursday.

'The only thing that's bothersome about it, is that I see being called "fake news" as the equivalent of the n-word for journalists, the equivalent of calling an Italian any of the ugly words that people have for that ethnicity,' Cuomo said. 'That's what fake news is to a journalist,' he added.

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CNN's Chris Cuomo has apologized for saying being called 'fake news' as a journalist is the equivalent to someone using the 'n-word' as a racial slur. Cuomo made the remarks during a radio interview with Michael Smerconish on SiriusXM POTUS on Thursday

Cuomo later apologized on Twitter after he was criticized for being insensitive

Cuomo also tweeted a 'thank you' for those who called him out on his remarks

He continued by saying that it's 'an ugly insult and you better be right if you're going to charge a journalist with lying on purpose and the president was not right here and he has not been right in the past'.

Cuomo later apologized on Twitter after he was criticized for being insensitive.

'I was wrong. Calling a journalist fake -nothing compared to the pain of a racial slur,' he wrote on Twitter Thursday afternoon. 'I should not have said it. I apologize.'

Cuomo also tweeted a 'thank you' for those who called him out on his remarks.

'I want to thank you for calling me out for equating fake [news] with other slurs. Wasn't my intention to diminish but just saying it was too much.'

Smerconish also defended Cuomo on Twitter by saying that he understood what Cuomo meant with the remark.

Cuomo made the comments during the radio interview while talking about president Donald Trump's tweet (pictured) early Thursday morning in which he called Cuomo's interview with Sen Richard Blumenthal 'FAKE NEWS'

're: @ChrisCuomo interview - I know what he was getting at – he had NO intention of minimizing pain of racial slur,' Smerconish tweeted.

President Donald Trump has continuously called CNN 'fake news'.

Cuomo made the comments during the radio interview while talking about Trump's tweet early Thursday morning.

The tweet was in reference to Cuomo's line of questioning during the interview with Sen Richard Blumenthal.

'Chris Cuomo, in his interview with Sen. Blumenthal, never asked him about his long-term lie about his brave "service" in Vietnam. FAKE NEWS!' Trump tweeted.

Cuomo quickly disputed the president’s claims by sharing a clip of the interview.