Twitter Beef Between HUD Official, Reporter Comes to Nasty End

A former Trump campaign surrogate who now holds a job in the administration is apologizing after attacking a reporter on her personal Twitter account. Lynne Patton, who heads a regional office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, referred to reporter April Ryan as "Miss Piggy" in a since-deleted tweet Wednesday. Ryan is the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and frequently appears on CNN, reports the AP. The New York Post reports the "Miss Piggy" slight came after a bunch of jabs back and forth between the two. Patton had tweeted a series of gifs (featuring the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Ryan Gosling) directed at Ryan, whom Patton referred to as a blogger for a "bankrupt outlet."

Ryan fired back with this: "Do you work at HUD or play at it you washed up wedding planner. Girl bye!" Then came the tweet in which Patton wrote, "I hear #MissPiggys still on a rampage. Gee, I must’ve struck a nerve." Patton later tweeted, "I deleted my last tweet by choice. No one from this Administration contacted me. It was beneath me & I apologize to @AprilDRyan. My parents raised me to respect others & I regret my response. I apologize to them, @SecretaryCarson & the Trump family. They deserved better." Patton was an event planner for Donald Trump and his family before his 2016 presidential campaign.

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