MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow just couldn’t bear to read the words in front of her on Tuesday’s show.

The words were from an AP story on the separation of children from their families at the nation’s border.

The story reads, in part:

Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas, The Associated Press has learned. Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the Rio Grande Valley shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. The government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young migrant children in Houston, where city leaders denounced the move Tuesday. Since the White House announced its zero tolerance policy in early May, more than 2,300 children have been taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, resulting in a new influx of young children requiring government care. The government has faced withering critiques over images of some of the children in cages inside U.S. Border Patrol processing stations.

Maddow understandably couldn’t keep it together and eventually asked for a graphic so that it could be shown to their readers so they could read it themselves.

When that didn’t work, she attempted to soldier on, with tears in her eyes and a waver in her voice.

Afterward, she took to Twitter to apologize for showing emotion.

“Ugh, I’m sorry. If nothing else, it is my job to actually be able to speak while I’m on TV,” she wrote. Then, after concluding what she was trying to say, she added: “Again, I apologize for losing it there for a moment. 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

"Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas… 2/6 — Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

"Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the "tender age" shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis… 3/6 — Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

"Decades after the nation’s child welfare system ended the use of orphanages over concerns about the lasting trauma to children, the administration is standing up new institutions to hold Central American toddlers that the government separated from their parents… 4/6 — Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

“The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” said Kay Bellor, vice president for programs at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, “Toddlers are being detained.” 5/6 — Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

All from this Associated Press story that broke while I was on the air tonight, but which I was unable to read on the air:https://t.co/2VBLTVxvQq Again, I apologize for losing it there for a moment. Not the way I intended that to go, not by a mile. — Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 20, 2018

Watch above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]