Last night I made an error of judgment and tweeted this. It was sharp sarcasm, but looked like a call for violence. That's always wrong, even as a joke. It was especially wrong at a moment when unity and peace are so critical. I'm deeply sorry and vow not to repeat the mistake.

There's no excuse for my lapse in judgment here, but I would like to explain what I was trying to say, so that my intentions are clear.

This tweet followed another noting that many right-wing critics of Biden were accusing him of insincerity about his calls unity simply because they disagreed with his policy proposals, as if a Democrat taking standard Democratic positions were inherently divisive.

My ill-advised tweet was meant as a tart way to drive home the exasperating bad faith of those whose own divisive rhetoric and repetition of lies about election fraud facilitated the mob attack on the Capitol, where pro-Trump rioters built a noose and called for Pence's head.

It's hard to imagine anything more offensively divisive than that. Anyone who contributed to the toxic partisan animosity that led to this episode of violent sedition has no standing to suggest that we cannot arrive at unity except on their terms.

If right-wing demands led to calls to kill the vice president, but there can be no national unification except on right-wing terms, that suggests the COMPLETELY ABSURD conclusion that if Biden really took unity seriously, he'd endorse the mob violence of January 6.

Hence my regrettable tweet. But there are a million ways to make this point without inflaming partisan rancor by appearing to endorse the sort of violence I vehemently oppose. So, again, there was no excuse for putting the point the way I did. It was wrong, period.