3:07
- ABC News
- May 30, 2018
Roseanne Barr: 'I'm not a racist'
The comedian spent Tuesday night retweeting defenses and making excuses.
3:07
During her press briefing this afternoon, White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders said Trump was only calling out \"media bias.\"
\"Nobody is defending what she [Barr] said,\" Sanders said.
I'm not a racist, I never was & I never will be. One stupid joke in a lifetime of fighting 4 civil rights 4 all minorities, against networks, studios, at the expense of my nervous system/family/wealth will NEVER b taken from me.
— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 30, 2018
From Channing Dungey, President of ABC Entertainment: \"Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.\"
— Robert Iger (@RobertIger) May 29, 2018
There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.
Within minutes of her apology to Jarrett, Barr quickly began retweeting defenses of her comments and later this morning criticized \"Roseanne\" co-stars Sara Gilbert and Michael Fishman, who both released statements Tuesday critical of the show's star.
Fishman, who played Barr's son D.J. Conner on both the original and the reboot, tweeted \"today is one of the hardest days of my life\" and condemned her tweet, saying, \"we must stand-up against; bias, hatred, bigotry and ignorance.\"
Barr, 65, responded, \"i created the platform for that inclusivity and you know it. ME. You throw me under the bus. nice!\"
i created the platform for that inclusivity and you know https://t.co/hViHPX2ZUb. You throw me under the bus. nice!
— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 30, 2018
She responded simply \"Wow! unreal\" to Gilbert's statement from Tuesday calling Barr's tweet \"abhorrent.\"
Wow! unreal.
— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 30, 2018
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/valerie-jarrett-roseanne-barr-split-gty-jc-180529_hpEmbed_2_4x3_384.jpg\")
Barr tweeted or retweeted over 70 messages after her initial apology to \"the hundreds of people, and wonderful writers (all liberal) and talented actors who lost their jobs on my show due to my stupid tweet.” She sent dozens more direct replies to Twitter users.
Many of the tweets defended Barr's comments, saying she was not racist and attempting to point out the perceived hypocrisy on Disney’s part. Barr also claimed she did not know Jarrett was black, first saying she believed she was Saudi, then Jewish and Persian and finally that she believed Jarrett was white.
She blamed the initial tweet about Jarrett on the sleep medication Ambien, although she later deleted multiple tweets with references to the prescription sleep aid. The first of those tweets said, \"It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting-it was memorial day too-i went 2 far & do not want it defended.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/roseanne-show-reboot-cast-gty-ht-hb-180213_hpEmbed_6_4x3_384.jpg\")
Sanofi U.S., the biopharmaceutical company that makes Ambien, responded to Barr's tweet Wednesday morning, condemning her excuse that she was \"ambien tweeting.\"
\"People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world. While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication,\" the company said in a tweet.
People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world. While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.
— Sanofi US (@SanofiUS) May 30, 2018
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/roseanne-3-abc-er-180402_hpEmbed_3x2_384.jpg\")
As for Barr, she finally signed off at 3 a.m., tweeting, \"thanks for all your kind comments, everyone! Love u all goodnight.\"
She then sent two more retweets, including a defense from InfoWars editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson.
ABC News is a division of the Walt Disney Co.
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