The Arkansas GOP official who reportedly said that Hillary Clinton would “probably get shot” if she entered the state as a presidential candidate asserted on Tuesday that he had been taken out of context.

“That comment was taken way out of context,” 2nd Congressional District party chairman Johnny Rhoda told Business Insider about the U.S. News report on his remarks. “It certainly was not meant in a threatening or hostile way at all. It was just a comment. Perhaps I used the wrong word.”

“It was completely blown out of proportion,” he added.

The U.S. News reporter who reported Rhoda’s initial quote, David Catanese, wasn’t having it.

“Oh, yes, ‘taken out of context,'” Catanese told Business Insider in an email. “As in — taken out of our on-the-record conversation and into print.”