President Donald Trump has tweeted about Roseanne Barr’s show being cancelled by ABC.
ABC made the decision to drop ‘Roseanne’ after the actress compared former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett to a cross between the “Muslim brotherhood” and an “ape”.
Bob Iger, the chief executive of Disney, which owns ABC, expressed his support for the network’s decision and later called Jarrett to apologise, which prompted the President’s response.
On Wednesday, the president tweeted: “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?”
Trump’s comment came less than 24 hours after White House spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, told reporters that he would not be addressing the show’s cancellation.
Stating that the president was “focused” on issues including North Korea, the economy and trade deals, she said, “That’s what he’s spending his time on, not responding to other things,” the NYPost reported.
After apologising to Jarrett and telling her Twitter followers that she planned to take a break from the site, Barr drew further criticism by returning and blaming her racist tweet on the fact she had taken Ambien, a sleeping tablet.
On Wednesday afternoon, the medication’s manufacturers hit back, stating: “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”
‘Roseanne’ originally ran for nine seasons until it came off the air in 1997, telling the story of an American working-class family, with Roseanne Barr in the titular role.
The show’s reboot debuted to high ratings, though the revival was a controversial one, proving divisive since the news broke that the lead character would be a Trump supporter.