Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump blasts ABC after network cans ‘Roseanne’
White House says he is not defending Barr’s racist tweet
Barr blames insomnia drug The maker of Ambien retorted that “racism is not a known side effect.”
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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump responded Wednesday to ABC’s decision to cancel the hit show “Roseanne” after the show’s star sent a racist tweet comparing an Obama administration adviser to an ape.
In his tweet, Trump criticized the network, not Roseanne Barr, whose revived sitcom depicted a blue-collar Midwestern family that voted for the president.
“Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that ‘ABC does not tolerate comments like those’ made by Roseanne Barr. 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?”
Iger, chief executive of ABC’s parent company Walt Disney, quit the president’s business advisory council in June 2017, protesting the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accords.
Later he called Trump’s decision to end protections for young immigrants known as Dreamers “cruel and misguided.”
The White House said Trump was not defending Barr’s tweet.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump’s tweet was intended to point out media bias against him.
Also Wednesday, Sanofi, the maker of Ambien, said “racism is not a known side effect” after the comedian cited the insomnia drug in explaining the tweet that led ABC to cancel her show.
Hours after ABC pulled the plug on “Roseanne” because of her offensive tweet about Jarrett — and quickly breaking a promise to stay off Twitter — the comedian was busy posting on the social media platform.
Barr said of the Jarrett tweet, “It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting.”
Barr later tweeted that she has had odd experiences while taking the drug late at night. “I blame myself, not Ambien,” she tweeted.
“Roseanne” was an instant hit when it returned this spring after a twodecade hiatus. Trump reveled in the success of “Roseanne” after Barr’s character in the show came out as a supporter of his presidency.
But after Barr’s tweet that likened Jarrett, who is black, to a cross between the Muslim Brotherhood and the “Planet of the Apes,” ABC canceled the show in a one-sentence statement from network entertainment president Channing Dungey.
She called it “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
Barr’s agent also dropped her and several services pulled “Roseanne” reruns.
Jarrett, who said she was “fine” after the slur, urged in an MSNBC special Tuesday about racism that the incident become a teaching moment.
“Tone does start at the top, and we like to look up to our president and feel as though he reflects the values of our country,” Jarrett said. “But I also think that every individual citizen has a responsibility too, and it’s up to all of us to push back. Our government is only going to be as good as we make it be.”
Barr showed no signs of abandoning Twitter, writing that what she said was indefensible, then retweeting several statements others made supporting her.
She also apologized to those who had lost their jobs because of her action, but also condemned cast members who, in her words, threw her under the bus.
“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.”