Hours after federal law enforcement authorities arrested a young man from Idaho at a Hampton Inn in Pennsylvania whom they suspect used an assault rifle to shoot at the White House on Nov. 11, Lauren Pierce, president of the College Republicans club at the University of Texas at Austin, sent an alarming tweet about how “tempting” it might be to assassinate President Obama.

“Y’all as tempting as it may be, don’t shoot Obama. We need him to go down in history as the WORST president we’ve EVER had!#2012,” she wrote. (BET.com would link to the tweet, but Pierce's Twitter account is now set to private.)

Pierce, an intern for the Texas chapter of the conservative group, Americans for Prosperity, told the network that the tweet was a “joke” and that “the whole [shooting incident] was stupid.”

The tweet was first reported by ABC News.

The university’s student body president, Natalie Butler, told The Texas Tribune that the tweet was “in poor taste,” but Peggy Venebale, who heads Americans for Prosperity-Texas, said in an email to the newspaper that while it was “an error in judgement,” Pierce “had no ill intent.”

Pierce later deleted the tweet and acknowledged that she should never have posted it.

“I apologize for my previous tweet. It was in poor taste and should never have been written,” she wrote, adding later, “It’s never funny to joke about such a serious matter, I have learned a very valuable lesson. Again, I apologize to everyone that was offended.”

(Photo: Twitter)