KitchenAid Tweets Joke About Obama's Dead Grandmother During the Debate

Home appliance brand KitchenAid was forced into damage control mode late Wednesday after a joke about President Barack Obama's late grandmother was sent from the company's official Twitter account.

"Obama's gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! 'She died 3 days b4 he became president!' #nbcpolitics," the tweet said.

Obama brought up his grandmother during Wednesday night's presidential debate and credited her with helping to raise him. She died three days before he was elected president.

Moments later, the tweet was deleted and replaced with an apology:

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

Shortly after midnight, Cynthia Soledad, KitchenAid's senior director of marketing, took over the company's Twitter account to apologize further:

Soledad followed up with a statement to CNN explaining further, calling the tweet "offensive and tasteless."

"During the debate tonight, a member of our Twitter team mistakenly posted an offensive tweet from the KitchenAid handle instead of a personal handle. The tasteless joke in no way represents our values at KitchenAid, and that person won't be tweeting for us anymore," … I am deeply sorry to President Obama, his family, and the Twitter community for this careless error," the statement said.