The former deputy campaign manager of Trump for President on Sunday called a Democratic strategist out of his “cotton-picking mind.”

David Bossie, the longtime president of Citizens United, used the phrase in a heated discussion with Joel Payne about comparisons between immigration detention centers and Nazi concentration camps.

“You’re out of your cotton-picking mind,” Mr. Bossie said on “Fox & Friends.” “You guys are out of your minds. This is ridiculous. You’re out of your mind.”

Mr. Payne responded: “Cotton-picking mind? Brother, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. I’ve got some relatives who picked cotton. And I’m not going to sit here and allow you attack me like that on TV. I’m not out of my cotton-picking mind.”

Earlier in the discussion, Mr. Bossie had used the phrases “ever-picking minds” and “out of your minds.”

“Look, you’re demeaning what happened in World War II, to the world and to the Jewish people—the Holocaust was real,” he said. “And these people have lost their ever-picking minds.”

After the discussion, Fox News host Ed Henry said the phrase was “obviously offensive.”

“I just want to address what just happened in that debate, obviously got fiery, David Bossie used a phrase that clearly offended Joel Payne and offended many others,” Mr. Henry said. “I don’t know what David meant by it, you know, what went back and forth between the two of them. I’ve known David a long time, I’ll let him address exactly what he said. But I want to make clear that Fox News and this show, myself, we don’t agree with that particular phrase.”

Mr. Bossie later apologized for the remark on Twitter.

A Fox News spokesperson also said the comments were “deeply offensive and wholly inappropriate.”

“His remarks do not reflect the sentiments of FOX News and we do not in any way condone them,” the spokesperson said.

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