Walmart’s Twitter account on Wednesday posted, then deleted, a critical comment under a tweet of Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) in which he says he will object to the January 6 certifying of Electoral College votes by Congress and Vice President Mike Pence. After intense backlash from across the social media site, Walmart issued an apology, blaming the tweet calling the senator a “#soreloser” on an employee’s mistake.

“The tweet published earlier was mistakenly posted by a member of our social media team,” the corporation tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “We deleted the post and have no intention of commenting on the subject of certifying the electoral college. We apologize to Senator Hawley for this error and any confusion about our position.”

In a statement to Newsweek, Casey Staheli, Walmart’s senior manager of national media relations, said that the social media team member “intended to publish this comment to their personal account.”

Wednesday morning, the Missouri Republican tweeted that “Millions of voters concerned about election integrity deserve to be heard. I will object on January 6 on their behalf.”

Under that tweet, Walmart’s account commented “Go ahead. Get your 2 hour debate. #soreloser”

A couple of hours later, Hawley fired back at the incendiary comment, asking if the corporation would apologize “for using slave labor”.

“Thanks ⁦@Walmart⁩ for your insulting condescension,” the senator tweeted, with a screenshot of the comment. “Now that you’ve insulted 75 million Americans, will you at least apologize for using slave labor?”

“Or maybe you’d like to apologize for the pathetic wages you pay your workers as you drive mom and pop stores out of business,” he added.

Hawley’s objection, alongside the backing of Republican Congressman Mo Brooks (Ala.) and others, would usher in a two-hour debate in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Following which, they would vote on whether to approve or reject the objection. In order to successfully toss out the electoral votes, which experts overwhelmingly see as a longshot, both chambers of Congress would need to agree on the objection.

Over the past century, both chambers being forced to vote on whether they agree with a state’s Electoral College votes has only happened twice.

While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders have been urging the members of their caucus to not object to the certification of the states’ electoral votes on January 6 in a joint-session of Congress, a vocal handful of members backed by President Donald Trump have stated they’ll object to it.

Despite the Electoral College votes already having been officially cast on December 14, solidifying President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, President Trump refuses to concede, alleging widespread election fraud and that the election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him. The slew of legal cases filed by the president’s associates and supporters in multiple states failed to properly demonstrate that widespread fraud occurred and changed the election results, with the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month striking down a multi-state suit trying to throw out the results in a few swing states.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.