David Letterman has taken a lot of heat for a joke that ripped on Sarah Palin’s 14-year-old daughter (see video clip above). During last night’s Late Show, he addressed the criticism he’s received over the joke.

The David Letterman joke was about one of Palin’s daughters getting knocked up by New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez during a trip to Yankee Stadium. Letterman never specified which daughter, but it was assumed to have been about Palin’s 14-year-old daughter Willow, who had attended a Yankees game.

Letterman said that he was actually talking about Sarah Palin’s 18-year-old daughter Bristol.

David Letterman responded, “We were, as we often do, making jokes about people in the news and we made some jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter [Bristol]… and now they’re upset with me… These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl…. Am I guilty of poor taste? Yes. Did I suggest that it was okay for her 14-year-old daughter to be having promiscuous sex? No.”