Obama’s Dead Grandma Attacked In KitchenAid Tweet, Company Apologizes For Insensitive Mistake

For many people, President Barack Obama touched their hearts during the 2012 Presidential Debate when mentioning his grandma, who died three days before he was elected. But home appliance brand KitchenAid used the story about his grandmother to share its own musings on Twitter about the President, prompting the company to apologize for its offensive gaffe.

The tweet, which used “gma” as a short for “grandma,” read:

“Obamas gma [sic] even knew it was going 2 b bad! She died 3 days b4 he became president,” according to Mashable, which grabbed a screenshot of the tweet and posted the original remark to its website.

The tweet was in response to Obama’s remarks about his grandmother, Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham, in which he said:

“You know, my grandmother – some of you know – helped to raise me. My grandfather died a while back. My grandmother died three days before I was elected president. And she was fiercely independent. She worked her way up, only had a high school education, started as a secretary, ended up being the vice president of a local bank.”

Following a backlash from many of the Whirpool-owned company’s 24,000 followers, the company was forced to release an apology and delete the tweet, and also along with the employee who sent it.

"Deepest apologies for an irresponsible tweet that is in no way a representation of the brand's opinion. #nbcpolitics,” KitchenAid wrote.

KitchenAid even further added that the person who composed the offensive remark was likely fired.

"It was carelessly sent in error by a member of our Twitter team who, needless to say, won't be tweeting for us anymore,” a second post read.

Head of the KitchenAid brand, Cynthia Soledad, also shared her apologies to the President about the grandma comment on her personal Twitter account.

"I would like to personally apologize to President @BarackObama, his family and everyone on Twitter for the offensive tweet sent earlier,” Soledad wrote.

Turns out, according to a comment from Soledad to Mashable, that the person who handles – or, in this case, handled -- the Twitter account for KitchenAid meant to post it to their personal account.

“During the debate tonight, a member of our Twitter team mistakenly posted an offensive tweet from the KitchenAid handle instead of a personal handle,” she said. “The tasteless joke in no way represents our values at KitchenAid, and that person won’t be tweeting for us anymore. That said, I lead the KitchenAid brand, and I take responsibility for the whole team. I am deeply sorry to President Obama, his family, and the Twitter community for this careless error. Thanks for hearing me out.”