told Sharpton Tuesday.

"Let me clarify something that happened last night on the Al Sharpton show," Buchanan said Wednesday morning on MSNBC. "A very spirited discussion, I was asked who was the big losers in these battles and the big winners, and I said one of the big losers, using boxing terminology, was ‘your boy,’ and I meant the president of the United States."

"Rev. Sharpton said my boy is the president of the United States and he’s doing a rope-a-dope in the Ali fashion and he’s going to finish off your crowd. Now this was taken, some folks took what I said as some kind of slur. None was meant, none was intended, none was delivered, for the record," he added.

Buchanan didn't explain what he had meant Tuesday when he wrote that "the Tea Party 'Hobbits' are indeed returning to Middle Earth -- to nail the coonskin to the wall."

UPDATE: John Amato:

Buchanan knows how to use coded words to make racist points since he's been around the Southern Strategy a long time. And his long history of bigotry is well documented so he's someone that will never get the benefit of the doubt.