US Sen. Cramer apologizes for offensive term about Pelosi

BISMARCK, N.D. —
North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer apologized Wednesday for a late-night tweet in which he used an offensive term to describe House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Cramer blamed autocorrect for the tweet, which he deleted soon after posting it Tuesday evening. The Republican senator was responding to a video clip on Twitter in which Pelosi, D-Calif., was being interviewed on the massive COVID-19 relief bill being negotiated in Congress.

The tweet read: “She’s retarded.”

Cramer said in an interview that he meant to type, “She’s ridiculous,” and didn’t notice what he actually tweeted until a few minutes later when he went to make another tweet.

“It’s a word I just don’t apply to people. I can be pretty tough in my rhetoric, but that’s not a word I apply to people for really good obvious reasons.”

He added: “I’m really sorry it happened.”

Congressional negotiators finally struck a deal early Wednesday on a $2 trillion package after days of intense negotiations.