House Speaker's Spokesman Says Racial Slur `Entirely in Jest'

There's unwelcome press today for a North Carolina press secretary.

Don Follmer, who works as the spokesman for Republican N.C. House Speaker Harold Brubaker, has acknowledged using a racial slur.

The comments were made in reference to a group of UNC students and housekeepers gathered outside the state Legislative Building earlier this month to protest wages and work conditions.

Follmer reportedly told an Associated Press reporter in an office in the legislative building that the protesters were a group of "niggers and wormy kids," The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday. Many of the protesters were black and UNC students.

Follmer admits he used that language, but he says it was during a private conversation and was only meant as a joke