An NBC News contributor who once worked for former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he stands by his decision to label a conservative Wall Street Journal editor an "Iranian House Negro" during a Twitter exchange on Sunday.
NBC News contributor Hooman Majd, a vocal critic of Iran sanctions, referred to Wall Street Journal assistant books editor Sohrab Ahmari as "WSJ's (Iranian) ‘House Negro.’"
Majd and Ahmari are both Iranian-Americans.
Ahmari blasted Majd for the comment on his own Twitter feed.
"So I guess [Hooman Majd] gets away with calling me a "house n----" for disagreeing with his take on #Iran, #Israel, etc.?" Ahmari wrote.
Majd defended his remark when contacted by the Washington Free Beacon, and said Ahmari deserved the designation because of his hawkish views on Iran.
"In terms of [Ahmari’s] Iranian background, and his advocacy for sanctions (that by all counts are harming his people, causing even death) and even military action against his former country, his words and his activism on behalf of the interests opposed to Iran, and his stated desire for regime change imposed by the West, in my opinion put him squarely in the category of an Iranian ‘House Negro’, as the term is defined," Majd wrote in an email.
He added, "It is an insult, yes, but I stand by my statement."
Majd, the grandson of an ayatollah, has worked as a translator and adviser to Ahmadinejad and former President Mohammad Khatami.
This is not the first time Majd has come under fire for offensive Twitter comments. His account sent a tweet in 2012 to Iranian regime critic Nazanin Afshin-Jam, the wife of then-Canadian defense minister Peter MacKay.
"F***ing a Canadian minister doesn’t make you Canadian, azizam. Come back to papa ..." said the tweet.
Majd later said his account had been hacked and denied that he wrote the tweet.
Majd appears regularly on CNN and has written for the New York Times and the New Yorker. He is the author of two books published by Doubleday and Norton, and is also an amateur fashion blogger.