Under a barrage of criticism from Democrats, a progressive group supporting Bernie Sanders for president has retracted, and apologized for, describing Hillary Clinton's victories in the South as winning "the Confederacy."
But the Progressive Democrats of America's attempt to apologize on Twitter ended with PDA getting more criticism and eventually publicly attacking some of those critics with, among other things, suggestions that Clinton supporters upset about the Confederacy line were hypocrites.
The controversy began when PDA, a small liberal group founded in 2004 out of the remnants of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's and former Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich's progressive insurgent presidential campaigns, wrote in an email that "Hillary won the Confederacy, now the rest of the country is primed to go for Bernie."
The PDA shorthand for Clinton's dominance in southern states did not go over well.
This is COMPLETELY unacceptable, @pdamerica
PDA apologized through its Twitter account, but officials grew increasingly frustrated with critics who kept coming after the group.
From earlier: "No offense intended. We recognize legit. concerns re: emotionally charged term 'Confederacy, & apologize" @thepoliticalcat
@Bakari_Sellers @JChaseWilliams this has been addressed and will NOT happen again
Already did several times @brownsugar7878 Fair minded people accept an apology @smoothkobra
Trying to agree with you @geokaren Grayson said it, not blaming u We apologized Moving forward @mgranville1 @docrocktex26 @JChaseWilliams
We apologized several times @mgranville1 We're moving on now. @geokaren @docrocktex26 @JChaseWilliams
The group began to block critics on Twitter.
No @Donna_West of you troll us, you're blocked @allanbrauer
Eventually, the PDA account began retweeting attacks on Clinton supporters from Sanders supporters who stood with PDA.
PDAmerica, after apologizing for saying HRC won "The Confederacy, now retweeting this is response to HRC supporter: https://t.co/HTf5CCmSTy
The group was an early booster of Sanders' presidential campaign and continues to boost him ahead of the upcoming western primaries. A PDA official did not respond to a request for comment.
Update: Grayson told PDA he didn't use the term "Confederacy" and PDA apologized to him.
With all due respect to @PDAmerica, I did not refer to the Confederacy, and I wouldn't use that term in this context https://t.co/ImU6ybtb5i
@AlanGrayson did not use the term "Confederacy" in an article I linked in a PDA email. I did. I apologize for the word and confusion.