MSNBC President Apologizes to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus for Cheerios ...

Editor's note: Political Smackdown is a weekly Friday column on the major political battle of the week, whether it is among elected officials, political parties, or members of the media.

In a letter sent Thursday to MSNBC President Phill Griffin, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus banned all RNC staff members and surrogates from appearing on the network following a tweet sent out by MSNBC, suggesting that conservatives would hate a Cheerios Super Bowl ad that featured a biracial family.

'Maybe the rightwing will hate it, but everyone else will go awww: the adorable new #Cheerios ad w/ biracial family,' the tweet read.

'Such petty and demeaning attacks have become a pattern at your network,' Priebus wrote in the letter to Griffin Thursday. 'With increasing frequency many of your hosts have personally denigrated and demeaned Americans - especially conservative and Republican Americans - without even attempting to further meaningful political dialogue.'

'Until you personally and publicly apologize for this behavior,' Priebus added, 'I have banned all RNC staff from appearing on, associating with, or booking any RNC surrogates on MSNBC.'

In a separate statement to his staff, Priebus named former and current MSNBC hosts who he said 'have had a troubling streak in the last several weeks of making comments that belittle and demean Americans without furthering any thoughtful dialogue.' The list included Alec Baldwin, Martin Bashir, Melissa Harris-Perry, Alex Wagner, and Ronan Farrow.

MSNBC apologized in a series of tweets and also deleted the offensive tweet.

Earlier, this account tweeted an offensive line about the new Cheerios ad. We deeply regret it. It does not reflect the position of msnbc.

- msnbc (@msnbc) January 30, 2014

We are deleting the earlier offensive tweet. It does not reflect msnbc's position and we apologize. - msnbc (@msnbc) January 30, 2014

In addition, MSNBC President Phil Griffin offered a formal apology Thursday afternoon. 'The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable,' Griffin wrote. 'We immediately acknowledged that it was offensive and wrong, apologized, and deleted it. We have dismissed the person responsible for the tweet.'

He added: 'I personally apologize to Mr. Priebus and to everyone offended. At MSNBC, we believe in passionate strong debate about the issues and we invite voices from all sides to participate. That will never change.'

Priebus accepted Griffin's apology and also lifted the ban he placed on network. 'We appreciate Mr. Griffin's admission that their comment was demeaning and disgusting, and the Chairman accepted his apology,' read the statement by RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer. 'We will aggressively monitor the network to see whether their pattern of unacceptable behavior actually changes.'

This controversy adds to the list of MSNBC missteps in recent months. Alec Balwin and Martin Bashir left the network in December after inflammatory comments. Melissa Harris-Perry also came under fire last month for joking about a Romney family photo, which included their adopted African-American grandson.