Conservative columnist Ann Coulter appeared on Alan Colmes‘ radio show Thursday to defend her use of the word “retard” in a tweet about Monday night’s presidential debate, describing the responses from disabled people and advocacy groups as “bullying” by “liberal victims,” and telling people with disabilities who don’t approve of the word “Screw them!”

Alan tried gamely to get Coulter to understand why her use of the word was offensive (even to “liberal victims” like Michelle Malkin), but it was a doomed exercise, since Ann Coulter isn’t really that ignorant, she just thinks she’s protecting her unapologetic “brand.”

During Monday night’s final presidential debate, Coulter tweeted to her followers that “I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard,” an apparent reference to President Obama. The tweet drew widespread denunciation, even from Coulter’s fellow right-wing provocateur Michelle Malkin, and an invitation from Special Olympian John Franklin Stephens to come and meet some of the people she insulted.

...Here's the clip, from Alan Colmes

And here's the transcript of the relevant part of the interview:

Colmes: It’s okay for blacks [you claim] to say “You can’t use the N word,”How about people with disabilities who say, “You can’t use the R word?”

Coulter: I would not use any word that was unkind to describe someone who has an actual handicap, mental or physical. I would not do that.

Colmes: But that ‘s what they say you did.

Coulter: Oh, screw them! That’s what they feel I do. I feel they’re being authoritarian…bullying victims.”