MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow broke down in tears on-air over a report about the Trump administration operating “tender age” shelters for migrant babies and toddlers.

Maddow choked up while reading the first lines of the Associated Press report on the three facilities where children under the age of 13 are being sent after being separated from their parents at the border.

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She was unable to read the description of the shelters, first asking a producer to display a graphic and then deciding to abruptly end her segment.

“I think I’m going to have to hand this off, sorry,” the MSNBC host said through tears.

Rachel Maddow chokes up and cries on air as she struggles to deliver news that migrant babies and toddlers have been sent to "tender age" shelters pic.twitter.com/O6crm8cvyR — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) June 20, 2018

The AP reported Tuesday that at least three Texas facilities are currently operational and holding hundreds of crying babies and toddlers. The government is reportedly planning to open a fourth “tender age” detainment shelter in Houston as the number of separated children grows.

Maddow apologized later in a Twitter thread and shared the story again.

“Ugh, I’m sorry,” she wrote. “If nothing else, it is my job to actually be able to speak while I’m on TV.”

“I apologize for losing it there for a moment,” she added. “Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile.”

Ugh, I'm sorry.



If nothing else, it is my job to actually be able to speak while I'm on TV.



What I was trying to do -- when I suddenly couldn't say/do anything -- was read this lede:



1/6 — Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

The AP’s report comes amid intensifying backlash over the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which has resulted in thousands of migrant children being separated from their parents and sent to detention facilities.