Michael Grunwald apologized for his tweet about Julian Assange, pictured above. (Credit: YouTube, ABCNews, screenshot)

TIME magazine senior national correspondent Michael Grunwald apologized for a “dumb” tweet about Julian Assange being killed by a drone. Grunwald had tweeted August 17

“I can’t wait to write a defense of the drone strike that takes out Julian Assange.”

After a negative reaction on Twitter, Grunwald deleted the tweet and apologized.

It was a dumb tweet. I’m sorry. I deserve the backlash. (Maybe not the anti-Semitic stuff but otherwise I asked for it.)

— Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) August 18, 2013

 A TIME spokesperson told Hufington Post that the tweet was “offensive” and “in no way representative of TIME‘s views.” The spokesperson’s statement:

“Michael Grunwald posted an offensive tweet from his personal Twitter account that is in no way representative of TIME‘s views. He regrets having tweeted it, and he removed it from his feed.”

Hat Tip: Danny Shea