Michigan U.S. Senate candidate John James (R) apologized Tuesday after critics pointed out that a swastika makes a brief appearance in one of his campaign ads.
The Nazi symbol was pinned to a bulletin board in a school hallway featured in the ad.
“I need to fess up and admit this was a terrible error on our part,” James said at a press conference Tuesday, according to CBS News.
“We should have caught this error, and we didn’t, and there’s no excuse. I’m responsible for everything that our team does and fails to do, and I will do everything in my power to make sure this never, ever happens again.”
James, who is taking on Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) said the clip used in the campaign ad was “stock footage.” The ad, his first general election television spot, has been phased out and replaced with a different video, according to the Daily Beast.
{mosads}“As I said before, I love everyone and I denounce hatred and bigotry, It’s my responsibility to stand and denounce hatred and bigotry and take responsibility for that error and omission,” James said.
He also jabbed his opponent, saying that the controversy is an “indication that our message is working.”
“This is also an indication of how low people are willing to go,” he said.
A spokeswoman for James’s campaign told the Daily Beast that James, who is a military veteran, “doesn’t need to be lectured by a 43-year career politician on the history of evil.”
“John James is the son of slaves, and his family has overcome racism,” campaign manager Tori Sachs said. “After John James raised twice as much as Stabenow in the last quarter, cut her lead in half to single digits and defeated her in two debates, Stabenow finally realizes she is in for the political fight of her life.”
President Trump on Tuesday offered his endorsement of James via Twitter, saying the candidate is a “star.”
A RealClearPolitics average of polling shows Stabenow with a 16.3 percentage point lead over James, and the seat has been rated “likely Democrat” by the Cook Political Report.