As you’ve likely heard by now, the African-American student at Immanuel Christian School in Virginia — where Karen Pence is a teacher — has admitted that she lied about being assaulted by three white male classmates. A lot of media firefighters didn’t wait until the truth came out before seizing on this story as proof of Christian bigotry and Karen Pence’s tacit support for it.

To his credit, CNN political analyst Bakari Sellers admitted that he’d made a major mistake in lending credibility to the story:

His bad.

Yeah, it’s great of Sellers to admit he screwed this one up. What is decidedly less admirable about his mea culpa is his apparent inability to refrain from impugning Karen Pence’s character.

Sellers’ “bad” — aside from helping to advance a false narrative — is his insistence on sliming Karen Pence despite having no real reason to do so. Here’s what he tweeted last week when the initial story broke:

Save your “I’m sorry” for Karen Pence, Bakari.