On NBC’s “Today” this morning, NBC News “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory made an unfortunate offhand comment in regards to GOP candidate Herman Cain. After anchor Ann Curry asked Gregory whether the party wished Cain “would just go away?” he responded by saying:

“Well there is no, you know, Grand Wizard in the party right now who can really force the issue. I’ve talked to Cain’s advisers in Iowa, they think their support is still strong there, that it’s not falling.”

“Grand Wizard” was an honorific given to the leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Following the program, Gregory took to Twitter, where he apologized for his “poor choice of words”:

“‘Wizard’ remark this morning was a very poor choice of words. Did not mean to make that connection at all. Was not thinking. I apologize.”