Roseanne gives first TV interview since firing
Roseanne Barr still insists that calling Valerie Jarrett the baby of the “Muslim brotherhood & ‘Planet of the Apes’” wasn’t racist.
The controversial actress, who was fired from ABC and the reboot of her eponymous sitcom in late May, appeared on Fox News with Sean Hannity Thursday night in her first TV interview since her axing.
Echoing an erratic interview from last week, Barr, 65, said again that she didn’t know Jarrett was black when she attacked the former White House aide in a late night tweet several months ago.
“That was a political tweet,” she told Hannity, insisting that she was referring purely to Jarrett’s history with Iran.
“I will always defend Israel because I’m a Jew. That is a tweet asking for accountability from the previous administration about the Iran deal, which Valerie Jarrett is the author of.”
In a lengthy interview, Hannity continually brought up Barr’s previous admissions of multiple personality disorder and childhood abuse from her family — she had accused her mother of psychological abuse and her father of sexual abuse, although she then denied the accusations against him in the new interview — but Barr said she was just speaking “out loud.”
“Both extremes are not where my values are. My values are in the middle. I believe we have accountability to ask where our tax money goes,” she said, pointing out that she was the representative of the black caucus of the Green Party when she ran for president in 2012. “Black people chose me.”
Barr hasn’t spoken directly to Jarrett — who said on “The View” Wednesday that she wouldn’t be watching the Fox News interview — but said that she’s spent two months apologizing for what she’s now categorizing as a “misunderstanding.”
“I’m so sorry you thought I was racist and you thought my tweet was racist, because it wasn’t. It was political. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding that caused, my ill-worded tweet,” Barr said to the camera. “I’m sorry that you feel harmed and hurt. I never meant that. And for that I apologize. I never meant to hurt anybody or say anything negative about an entire race of people.”
As for her ugly exit from ABC, Barr claimed she asked the network to appear on “The View” to “correct” her tweet, but was denied.
After the cancellation, Barr agreed to waive any financial and creative rights to the spinoff, an agreement that ABC stressed in June when it announced “The Conners” would go ahead without the lead.
“I regret the circumstances that have caused me to be removed from Roseanne,” she said in a statement at the time. “I agreed to the settlement in order that 200 jobs of beloved cast and crew could be saved, and I wish the best for everyone involved.”
The actress said she was most heartbroken about how her family reacted.
“I have African-American children in my family, and Asians too and Hispanic people. Jews get around,” she told Hannity. “I felt so bad for those kids because I didn’t want them to think about me like that.”
The hasty “Roseanne” spinoff, “The Conners,” will premiere on CBS on Oct. 16 with stars John Goodman (Dan), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie), Sara Gilbert (Darlene), Lecy Goranson (Becky) and Michael Fishman (D.J.).