Ira Madison, a culture writer for MTV news, published this tweet about Jeff Sessions today:

The little girl in the picture is Sessions granddaughter. This was pointed out by dozens of people including CNN’s Jake Tapper. The tweet also brought a strong response from the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza:

Disgusting tweet. The little girl is his granddaughter. Delete your account and find some humanity. https://t.co/8OZUtY5FcA — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 10, 2017

Madison responded by shifting from “humor” to a serious response in which he referred to the girl as a prop:

Why is she a prop? Sessions argued for policy that in the 1880s was used to discriminate against Asian Americans https://t.co/sZitqzLBS4 — Ira Madison III (@ira) January 10, 2017

He kept digging:

In fact, Americans have long used Asian-Americans as "model minorities" since the rise of the civil rights act https://t.co/IwFwt4vXpX — Ira Madison III (@ira) January 10, 2017

As Jake Tapper pointed out in response to a question, it’s not at all uncommon for nominees to bring grandchildren to hearings:

Eventually, Madison decided to delete his original tweet, offering this explanation:

I often tell jokes, but seeing as bringing up Sessions' history of racial hatred of Asians is seen as an attack on his grandchild, I deleted — Ira Madison III (@ira) January 10, 2017

In fact, Madison offered no such evidence. And the quip about Sessions’ granddaughter was his first comment on the topic, not an aside he added later. Apparently he never learned the first rules of holes: When you’re in one, stop digging.

The same advice might apply more broadly to MTV News. Just last month they published a widely mocked video clip offering 2017 New Year’s resolutions for white people. The video was pulled a short time later but copies are still available on You Tube: