Roseanne tweets after cancellation

NEW YORK — An old picture of Roseanne Barr dressed as Adolf Hitler, wearing a swastika and pulling burnt cookies from an oven, splashed on the front of the New York Daily News on Wednesday like a neon sign asking ABC executives: What were you thinking?

Given Barr’s past incidents of bad behavior and questionable social media posts, ABC faced questions Wednesday about why it went back into business with her before it all blew apart. ABC canceled its successful reboot of Roseanne on Tuesday following the star’s racist tweet likening former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape.

Barr continued tweeting Wednesday, at one point saying the offending tweet was composed at 2 a.m. after she took the insomnia drug Ambien.

That led the drug maker Sanofi to say on social media that “racism is not a known side effect” of its product.

Barr wrote that what she said was indefensible, then retweeted several statements others made supporting her.

She apologized to those who had lost their jobs because of her action, but also condemned cast members who criticized her.

“I’m not a racist, I never was & I never will be,” she wrote Wednesday.

“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 be taken from me.”