Roseanne Barr blames her racist tweet on Ambien
Roseanne Barr returned to Twitter late Tuesday night with a message for her supporters.
"Guys, I did something unforgivable so do not defend me," she said. Earlier in the day, ABC canceled the reboot of Barr's show after she posted a racist tweet about former President Barack Obama's senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. "It was 2 in the morning and I was Ambien tweeting," she said. "It was Memorial Day, too. I went too far and do not want it defended — it was egregious indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn't but ... don't defend it please." She later tweeted that people shouldn't "start all of that boycott ABC stuff — I'm not a censor and they have the right to do what they wish."
Barr spent much of the night on a retweeting spree, and although she requested that people stop defending her, she retweeted several people who were doing exactly that, as well as those calling for Joy Behar's firing from The View and a right-wing conspiracy theorist who implied that Jarrett is not black. She also retweeted people who told her her apology wasn't sincere and she was an "impulsive bigot."
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Earlier in the night, Barr issued a statement apologizing to Jarrett, ABC, the cast and crew of Roseanne, and fans of the show. "I am sorry for making a thoughtless joke that does not reflect my values — I love all people and am very sorry," she said. "Today my words caused hundreds of hardworking people to lose their jobs."
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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