Howard Dean says he’s not ready to apologize to Donald Trump for suggesting the candidate has a cocaine habit, but during an MSNBC interview Friday Dean said, “I apologize for using innuendo.” Meanwhile, in the same interview, Dean once again used innuendo to suggest there was something wrong with Trump and refused to rule out a cocaine habit.

The Huffington Post is reporting Dean’s remarks as an apology but that’s not what this interview was. Asked if he stood behind his attack on Trump Dean changed the subject and asked if he was about to lose his contributor status at MSNBC. He then said, “So let me be serious about this. First of all, Donald Trump was up in the wee hours of the morning—Katy Tur, I just saw Katy Tur’s tweets—he was tweeting at 3 and 4 o’clock in the morning about sex tapes.”

Dean continued, “This guy’s running for president of the United States. There is absolutely…” At this point, Dean was cut off by host Stephanie Ruhle who thought, correctly, that Dean was not answering her question. “Saying that Donald Trump was maybe coked up…c’mon he has no history of that,” Ruhle argued.

“Well, I don’t know that we know that,” Dean replied. “People who stay up at 3 and 4 and 5 o’clock in the morning tweeting about sex tapes, these are not normal people,” he continued. “And there is something the matter with him and I don’t know what it is. So let me say this. I would be willing to apologize, not to Donald Trump, but I don’t think using innuendo is a good thing,” Dean said.

Howard Dean is against innuendo the same way he was against doctors diagnosing people over the television the last time he was on TV to to diagnose Trump based on what he saw on television. Howard Dean is against innuendo the way Gary Johnson is against smoking pot until you can’t remember a single foreign leader’s name. Howard Dean is against innuendo the way Captain Crunch is against eating too much sugar for breakfast.

Dean then launched into a critique of the media saying, “I would like the media of this country to apologize.” He went on to suggest that his cocaine tweet was really a bid to teach the media a lesson. “I’m not unwilling to apologize for using innuendo. Donald Trump has used innuendo from the day he got into this campaign and you, media, have not called him on it.” Asked why he would want to “go low” like Trump Dean replied, “Stephanie, I did that on purpose so I could say just exactly what I said.”

The idea that this is a teachable moment rather than just a sleazy attack may convince some Huff Post readers but most people will see this for what it is: An attempt to drag out the original cocaine insinuation for one more news cycle.

Has Hillary Clinton denounced this clown yet? Has she even been asked to do so? Watch team Clinton continue to go lower: