KitchenAid in hot water after inappropriate Twitter jab at President Obama

KitchenAid, a U.S. company famous for its high-end mixers and other baking and cooking equipment, has landed in hot water after a controversial (and since-deleted) joke about President Barack Obama's grandmother went out via the company's account on the social medium Twitter during Wednesday night's presidential debate. According to Think Progress, the company has apologized profusely, and spent the morning Thursday in damage control, trying to address the situation with reporters.

“Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president,” read the offending communiqué, which was tweeted shortly after Obama told a story about his grandmother in which he discussed her death three days before he was elected.

Fourteen hours ago, the @KitchenAidUSA Twitter account followed up the offensive tweet with an apology, saying, "Deepest apologies for an irresponsible tweet that is in no way a representation of the brand's opinion."

Later, Cynthia Soledad, "head of the KitchenAid brand," took over the company's Twitter feed, apologizing to Obama a second time.

"I would like to personally apologize to President @BarackObama, his family and everyone on Twitter for the offensive tweet sent earlier," Soledad wrote, then followed up by saying, "It was carelessly sent in error by a member of our Twitter team who, needless to say, won't be tweeting for us anymore."  She then sent a third message, saying, "That said, I take full responsibility for my team. Thank you for hearing me out."

Think Progress noted that "KitchenAid is owned by the company Whirlpool. Whirlpool’s corporate Political Action Committee gave about two thirds of its funding to Republicans this election cycle."

[Image of a KitchenAid mixer via Shutterstock]