Sid Miller under fire for tweet calling Clinton the 'C-word'

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller referred to Hillary Clinton as the C-word on Twitter, Nov. 1, 2016. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller referred to Hillary Clinton as the C-word on Twitter, Nov. 1, 2016. Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close Sid Miller under fire for tweet calling Clinton the 'C-word' 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN – Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller first blamed a hacker and then a staffer before deleting a tweet that used a vulgar term for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Tuesday, igniting a social media firestorm of condemnation from all political corners, including a rebuke from Gov. Greg Abbott.

Miller said a staff member on his campaign team copied and pasted a tweet from another twitter account, but missed the reference to Clinton as a "c--t."

"We screwed that. We made a mistake," Miller said by phone late Tuesday.

He said his staffer did not read the message closely before posting the tweet. He said his team took it down when they realized what it said. By that time, however, the tweet already had been noted and screen-shot by political reporters who retweeted it across the country.

"It's disrespectful and not something I would want my name attached to. We apologize for that," Miller said.

READ MORE: Miller posts fake shot of Obama with Che tee

Miller, a Republican and avid Trump supporter, added the tweet "was not done maliciously" and the staffer "has been dealt with," but declined to go into further detail.

The tweet referenced a Pennsylvania poll from the New Auto Alliance, and read: "Trump 44, C--t 43. Go Trump Go!"

An account with an anonymous identity tweeted a similar message to Miller's four minutes before his went out.

Texas Democrats pounced, using it in a fundraising pitch less than an hour after the tweet was posted.

"It's not about one tweet," said Crystal K. Perkins, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. "It's about a consistent pattern where the Republican Party fails to show even the most basic sense of human decency."

Abbott blasted Miller for the tweet, calling it "reprehensible" and "an embarrassment" to the Lone Star state.

"No true Texas gentleman would ever talk this way," Abbott said in a statement.

As the genesis of the tweet unfolded on Twitter, it sparked criticism on social media of Miller who has found himself immersed in controversy since he first took the office in 2015.

Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, said he hoped the tweet was the work of a hacker: "This better be the case. If not, it is outrageous and has no place in our public discourse."

Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas tweeted, "Deserve each other: Sid Miller calls woman c-word/ Trump say grab em by the p-word."

Tuesday's tweet taps into the sometimes coarse nature of the political discourse in this year's presidential election that has included Trump calling Clinton a "nasty woman" and revelations he bragged about grabbing a woman by the genitals.

"When you have Republican office holders using that kind of language, it's very misogynistic," said Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place. "It's definitely damaging to the Republican Party in general, speaking about women that way or a particular woman, Hillary Clinton, that way. It does nothing to promote conservative principles at all and it alienates Republican women, as well as independent women. It's not a good way to grow the party and to grow our base."

Rep. Poncho Nevárez, D-Eagle Pass, scoffed at the initial defense by a Miller spokesman who said the commissioner's Twitter account had been hacked.

"I call bull," Nevárez tweeted. "Look at his tweets before it was same vein w out obscenity. He cutting pasting Pr Trump stuff w out care."

Since his election as agriculture commissioner in 2014, Miller has drawn criticism for a host of actions, including a Facebook post comparing Syrian refugees to rattlesnakes, his travel to receive a so-called "Jesus shot" to alleviate pain while on a state-funded trip, and used state and campaign funds to compete in an out-of-state rodeo. He agreed to refund the money from his trips and was not charged with any wrongdoing.

Tuesday was not the first time Miller has had to pull down a message on social media. Last summer his team shared a Facebook post depicting an atomic bomb blast, saying, "Japan has been at peace with the U.S. since August 9, 1945. It's time we made peace with the Muslim world." That post was taken down the next day after sparking outrage on Miller's Facebook page. At the time, Miller's office said future posts that do not reflect the commissioner's views would not be posted.

READ MORE: Miller shares Facebook post about nuking the Muslim world

Miller tweeted as recently as last Friday that he tweets for himself. The comment came as he took a jab at Clinton's emails, after it was revealed that several members of her staff would check certain tweets. "#CrookedHillary needs a dozen people to check her tweets. My thoughts are my own," he said on Twitter.

The agriculture commissioner's campaign consultant, Todd Smith, originally blamed the tweet on a hacker and said the campaign asked Twitter to investigate.

"It's just unconscionable and we would never, ever, ever, ever, ever post anything as disgusting and filthy as that and obliviously this is someone attempting to make Commissioner Miller and Donald Trump look bad," Smith said.