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Trump weighs in as backlash against ‘racist’ Roseanne Barr continues

Donald Trump has tweeted following Roseanne Barr's racist rant. Source: Getty

US president Donald Trump has weighed in on the Roseanne Barr debate.

As you’ll recall, Barr caused outrage earlier this week after a series of shocking tweets took aim at a number of people, including former US President Barack Obama’s former senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, Hillary and Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea Clinton and Jewish billionaire and philanthropist George Soros.

The tweets were branded “racist” and “abhorrent”, with ABC Entertainment swiftly axing the reboot of Roseanne.

Since then, Barr has gone into meltdown, returning to Twitter to apologise and even getting support from Trump. Confusingly, she has also continued to retweet messages that appear to contradict her apology. Taking to Twitter, Trump wanted to know why the US network said sorry to Jarrett, but not to him for statements that were made on the network about him.

“Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that ‘ABC does not tolerate comments like those’ made by Roseanne Barr,” he wrote. “Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?”

Trump has been a fan of Barr for some time, even congratulating her on the success of Roseanne earlier this year when it became a ratings hit in the US. Barr has tried her hardest to apologise and let fans know exactly what led her to post the tweet in the first place.

Barr originally said she did something “unforgivable”, “egregious” and “indefensible”, before suggesting the tweets were a result of taking sleeping pills. One person asked why the 65-year-old was making excuses, to which she replied: “No, i didnt i blamed myself. stop lying. Yes, I have had odd ambien experiences on tweeting late at night-like many other ppl do. I BLAME MYSELF OK? it’s just an explanation not an excuse, Ok, bully? [sic]”

She also sent a message directly to Jarret, offering her apology.

“’I don’t know if u saw it, but I wanted2 apologize to u 4 hurting and upsetting u with an insensitive & tasteless tweet. I am truly sorry-my whole life has been about fighting racism. I made a terrible mistake wh caused hundreds of ppl 2 lose their jobs. so sorry! [sic]”

She then told fans she wasn’t racist.

“I’m not a racist, I never was & I never will be,” she explained. “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 [sic].”

Still, she retweeted support she’d received from angry fans who couldn’t understand why her show had been pulled, before blasting co-star Sara Gilbert who distanced herself from Burr’s comments.

https://twitter.com/texm98/status/1001531455397392390

https://twitter.com/ThomasWictor/status/1001727434855669760

“Wow! Unreal,” she tweeted. “She’s distancing herself from me and my tweet – she has to.”
She later said her fans make her feel like “fighting back” and told them she would “examine all my options carefully”.

Even Charlie Sheen, who himself was axed from Two And A Half Men due to poor behaviour, sent tweets to Barr.

The reboot of Roseanne first premiered just three months ago, getting huge ratings within weeks that prompted producers to confirm there would be a second series later this year. However, all filming has been pulled following backlash over Barr’s comments online.

Meanwhile, Network Ten have since reportedly confirmed they will no longer air episodes on Channel 10 either. The network reportedly said in a statement: “Network Ten is appalled and disgusted with Ms Barr’s racist tweet and has removed Roseanne from Ten and Eleven, effective immediately.”

What do you think? Should Roseanne have been pulled from air?

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