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AP Photos MSNBC president apologizes to RNC, fires staffer responsible for tweet

A more detailed version of this report can be read here.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin apologized to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Thursday for a tweet suggesting conservatives “hate” interracial marriages and “dismissed” the staffer who authored it.

“The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable. We immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it. We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet,” Griffin wrote in a statement.

“I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended,” he continued. “At msnbc we believe in passionate, strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change.”

Earlier on Thursday, Priebus sent a letter to Griffin announcing that he would ban all staff members and surrogates from appearing on the liberal news network until Griffin personally and publicly apologized. Priebus also said he had “asked Republican surrogates and officials to follow our lead.”

Following Griffin’s apology, RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer sent a memo to staff informing them that the chairman had accepted Griffin’s apology.

“We appreciate Mr. Griffin’s admission that their comment was demeaning and disgusting, and the Chairman accepted his apology. We will aggressively monitor the network to see whether their pattern of unacceptable behavior actually changes,” Spicer wrote. “We don’t expect their liberal bias to change, but we will call them out when political commentary devolves into personal and belittling attacks.”

In an email to POLITICO, Spicer confirmed that the boycott of MSNBC had been lifted. “That was the deal. Apology and corrective action,” he wrote.

The tweet, which MSNBC posted on Wednesday night, directed readers to an MSNBC article about a Cheerios Super Bowl ad that features a biracial family.

“Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family,” the tweet read. An early version of the article also referenced a possible “outcry from the right” in response to the ad, though that was later taken out.

Shortly before 11 p.m. ET, MSNBC apologized for the tweet, which it called “offensive,” and announced that it would be deleting it.

“Earlier, this account tweeted an offensive line about the new Cheerios ad. We deeply regret it. It does not reflect the position of msnbc,” the network wrote on Twitter. “We are deleting the earlier offensive tweet. It does not reflect msnbc’s position and we apologize.”

MSNBC.com executive editor Richard Wolffe also issued an apology on his own Twitter account, calling the tweet “dumb,” “offensive” and “not who we are at msnbc.”

Priebus and other RNC staff and surrogates appear frequently on MSNBC, especially on “Morning Joe” and “The Daily Rundown,” which are more devoted to agenda-setting political news than to partisan ideology. Priebus appeared on “Morning Joe” on Wednesday.

In his letter to Griffin, Priebus wrote that “such petty and demeaning attacks have become a pattern” at the network.

“With increasing frequency many of your hosts have personally denigrated and demeaned Americans — especially conservative and Republican Americans — without even attempting to further meaningful political dialogue,” he wrote. “While I personally enjoy appearing on decent shows like ‘Morning Joe’ and ‘Daily Rundown,’ the entire network is poisoned because of this pattern of behavior.”

In a separate statement, Priebus identified specific former and current MSNBC hosts who he said “have had a troubling streak in the last several weeks of making comments that belittle and demean Americans without furthering any thoughtful dialogue.” That list included Alec Baldwin, Martin Bashir, Melissa Harris-Perry, Alex Wagner and Ronan Farrow.