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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former Massachusetts Gov., and 2012 Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md. on March 15. MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry apologized to Romney's family after a picture of the Romney holiday card that showed the 2012 Republican presidential candidate's adopted, African-American grandson was joked about on her show.
NEW YORK » An MSNBC host apologized to Mitt Romney’s family today after she and guests on her show joked about a Christmas picture that showed the 2012 Republican presidential candidate’s adopted, African-American grandson.
Melissa Harris-Perry said her intention was to celebrate diversity, but the segment took an unexpected and offensive turn when she asked her guests to talk about a photo showing infant Kieran Romney with his grandparents and their 21 other grandchildren, all of them white.
One guest on her Sunday show, actress Pia Glenn, sang "one of these things just isn’t the same."
Comedian Dean Obeidallah said it "sums up the diversity of the Republican party."
Harris-Perry said she’d like to see Kieran marry Kanye West’s daughter so West and Romney would be in-laws.
MSNBC has had several of its hosts issue apologies in recent months.
Martin Bashir apologized and resigned from the network on Dec. 4 after making graphic remarks about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, suggesting someone should defecate in her mouth.
Bashir’s comments about Palin came on the same day MSNBC suspended Alec Baldwin from his weekly show for two episodes because the actor used an anti-gay slur in a confrontation with a photographer on a New York City street. Baldwin apologized, and he and network ended his show after five episodes.
