Rich Lowry, editor-in-chief of the conservative magazine the National reviewdenies using the N-word during his Sunday appearance at The Megyn Kelly Show. Lowry was discussing baseless claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, when he was at a loss for words.

In the clip, which circulated on social media on Monday, Lowry said, “They only found two Springfield residents who called and complained about Haitian migrants taking geese out of ponds.” However, several social media users say it sounded like Lowry used the N-word instead of “migrants” before correcting himself.

Host Megyn Kelly did not seem to react to Lowry’s stumble.

X-user @peltzmadeline posted the clip and wrote, “I’m having a hard time coming to any conclusion other than the obvious one that Rich Lowry is blurting out here.”

In a response to the post, Andrew McCarthy, a colleague of Lowry at the National reviewcame to his rescue. “Ridiculous,” he wrote, “@richlowry (not tagged here, of course) obviously confused ‘immigrants’ (short i) and ‘migrants’ (long i) – he started mispronouncing ‘migrants’ with a short i; immediately and unashamedly corrected himself because it was obviously a mispronunciation. My goodness.”

Lowry himself soon agreed with McCarthy’s description of what happened. He replied to X: “I started to mispronounce the word ‘migrants’ and caught myself halfway through.”

Kelly also supported Lowry’s character in response to the clip. “This is so disgusting and obvious coming from someone who doesn’t know @RichLowry at all,” she posted on X. “A finer, more gracious man of good character you will never meet.”

The Haitian migrants from Springfield, Ohio, have been a political topic in recent days since former President Donald Trump supported the baseless conspiracy theory that some of them had been caught eating other people’s pets.