GOP attendee ejected for throwing nuts at African American CNN camera woman + saying "This is how we feed animals." @takeactionnews #TAN

— David Shuster (@DavidShuster) August 29, 2012

At 8:35pm EST Monday night journalist David Shuster tweeted he had just seen a Republican National Convention (RNC) attendee throw nuts at a black CNN camera woman while yelling "this is how we feed animals."

Shuster’s tweet went viral and in a matter of hours was re-tweeted more than 6,000 times, ultimately leading to CNN releasing an official statement confirming the incident.

Talking Points Memo’s Kyle Leighton explains he "generally confirmed" the tweet with a CNN official but the cable news network’s written response does not mention the employees gender or race.

CNN’s written statement to Talking Points Memo:

"CNN can confirm there was an incident directed at an employee inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum earlier this afternoon. CNN worked with convention officials to address this matter and will have no further comment."

GOP convention spokesman Kyle Downey told Politico, "Two attendees tonight exhibited deplorable behavior. Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated."

It is not clear whether the alleged racist nut thrower was a delegate or someone attending the convention in some other capacity.

What’s clear is the incident won’t make it any easier for Mitt Romney to get black voters behind him.

A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 0 percent of black voters surveyed support Romney.

And let’s not even mention Voter ID laws championed by GOP leaders that studies show will make it harder (if not impossible) for black voters to get inside polling booths. Or the voter vigilante efforts.