Former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean halfheartedly apologized Friday for his tweet earlier this week suggesting that Donald Trump uses cocaine before calling on the media to apologize for not doing its job calling out Trump for his own innuendos.

During the first presidential debate Monday night, Trump sniffed several times during his responses. Dean reacted via Twitter with how own take on Trump’s sniffing.

Notice Trump sniffing all the time. Coke user? — Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) September 27, 2016

His tweet started a firestorm on social media, stirring significant press coverage and criticism, including from prominent Democrats.

Dean first doubled down on his tweet amid the backlash. of the tweet and multiple interviews. MSNBC anchor Kate Snow asked Dean on Tuesday why he made the accusation. Dean called Trump’s actions a "signature" of cocaine users. The former DNC chair and Vermont governor stopped short of making a diagnosis on television, but he did say that something "funny" was going on with Trump that night.

Dean also said in the interview that he would not delete the tweet or apologize. However, he did halfheartedly apologize on Friday during an interview with MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle.

Ruhle played a clip of Dean’s previous interview with Snow and showed him tweets from some of his Democratic colleagues criticizing him

"Do you stand by saying that?" Ruhle asked.

Instead of answering the question, Dean criticized Trump for tweeting between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. on Friday morning about former Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado, who is supporting Hillary Clinton because of Trump’s previous derogatory comments about her.

After criticizing Trump, Dean said that he would apologize for his innuendo, but he would not apologize to Trump.

"I would be very willing to apologize, not to Donald Trump, but I don’t think using innuendo is a good thing, but the problem is much greater than that. I would like the media of this country to apologize. You have used–not you personally, but we have used a double standard on Donald Trump and created Donald Trump," Dean said.

Later in the interview, Ruhle asked Dean why he was so critical of Trump’s innuendos in the campaign if he was going to act like him by tweeting an innuendo about Trump using cocaine. Dean said he used the innuendo on purpose to make a point, but that he apologized for it.

"I don’t think it’s a good thing to do. I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. This entire campaign has been debased by innuendo. Where was the mainstream media calling out innuendo 15 months ago when Donald Trump started running for president of the United States? That’s what I want to know. Do your job," Dean said.

After the interview Friday morning, Dean sent out multiple tweets about the media not doing its job covering Trump, redirecting the conversation from his original tweet suggesting Trump uses cocaine.

Howard Dean apologizes for cocaine "innuendo" https://t.co/u0HtOyiwMP via @HuffPostPol

VERY DISAPPOINTING STORY. THE POINT IS #DOYOURJOB — Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) September 30, 2016