A British member of the House of Lords derided trailblazing Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as "the Indian" in a Twitter post that is being condemned as racist.
"What happens if Biden moves on and the Indian becomes President," John Kilclooney asked in a tweet that he later deleted.
Harris, the first black woman to hold the No. 2 office in the U.S., is the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica.
Kilclooney, 82, a member of the largely ceremonial upper chamber of the British parliament and a former leader of a right-wing Protestant party in Northern Ireland, claimed he meant no harm by the missive.
"Harris is rightly proud of her Indian background I certainly withdraw my reference to her as an Indian as it seems to have upset some people," Kilclooney tweeted. "Racist NO."
Despite his words, Kilclooney came under immediate fire from peers.
"This is an offensive way to refer to anyone, let alone a woman who has just made history," wrote Speaker of the Lords Norman Fowler.
Angela Smith, the leader of the opposition Labour Party in the House of Lords, called the remark about Harris "despicable and beneath contempt."
"This comment totally unacceptable from anyone — but especially from someone in parliament," Smith said.
