After vowing to leave Twitter, Roseanne Barr returned to the social media platform Tuesday night with a message to her fans and an apology to the people who lost their jobs over her racist rant.
Barr spent much of Tuesday evening retweeting fans who took issue with ABC’s cancellation of her self-titled sitcom, Roseanne.
Read More: ABC Cancels ‘Roseanne’ Reboot After Roseanne Barr’s Racist Tweets
She also blamed the prescription sleeping drug Ambien for the early morning Twitter tirade that led to the demise of her series, but later deleted the tweet.
“Guys I did something unforgiveable so do not defend me,” Barr told her fans in a tweet that has since been deleted. “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-it was egregious Indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn’t but…don’t defend it please. ty.”
Sanofi, the company that makes Ambien, responded to her claim Wednesday morning on Twitter.
“People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world,” the company tweeted. “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”
In another now-deleted tweet, Barr apologized to the cast and crew members who lost their jobs Tuesday when ABC pulled the plug on Roseanne.
“Don’t feel sorry for me, guys!!-I just want to apologize 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 said, adding that she will appear on the Joe Rogan podcast Friday to speak more at length.
ABC canceled Roseanne shortly after Barr posted a tweet calling President Barack Obama’s aide Valerie Jarrett an offspring of Islamist organization Muslim Brotherhood and the movie Planet of the Apes.
“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” Barr wrote using Jarrett’s initials as she responded to a tweet about the former White House aide.
Jarrett was born in Iran and is African-American.
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After some Twitter users told her the tweet was racist, Barr apologized, saying she was leaving Twitter and that her comment about Jarrett was a “joke.”
Within hours of the comedian’s controversial tweet, ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey announced the network would not be bringing the show back for a second season.
“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” Dungey said in a statement.
The reboot of Barr’s 1980s sitcom premiered in March to huge ratings and was immediately renewed. On Tuesday night, Barr retweeted several of her fans, who accused ABC and its parent company Disney of hypocrisy.
“Joy Behar mocked Mike Pence’s faith on ‘The View’ and said that the way he prayed to Jesus was ‘mental illness,'” read one post that Barr retweeted. “She didn’t apologize until a month later. ABC was silent. Roseanne.”
https://twitter.com/TradefinalotFin/status/1001657071950073856
Another said: “Disney, owner of @ABCNetwork fought to keep contracts with Harvey Weinstein confidential, fires @therealroseanne over a dumb joke tweet.”
https://twitter.com/Chadwick_Moore/status/1001696813399920641
