Roseanne Barr blames Ambien for tweet; drug maker replies

LOS ANGELES — After issuing an apology, Roseanne Barr overnight slammed some of her former co-stars and retweeted defenses of her racist comments that prompted ABC to cancel her hit TV series.

Barr tweeted multiple apologies to Obama administration adviser Valerie Jarrett after the comedian posted a tweet saying Jarrett was the product of a combination of "Planet of the Apes" and the Muslim Brotherhood. She quickly deleted the tweet but it drew widespread condemnation and the cancellation of her self-titled series reboot after one season.

But within minutes of the apology, Barr quickly began retweeting defenses of her comments and later this morning criticized "Roseanne" co-stars Sara Gilbert and Michael Fishman, who both released statements Tuesday critical of the show's star.

Fishman, who played Barr's son D.J. Conner on both the original and the reboot, tweeted "today is one of the hardest days of my life" and condemned her tweet, saying, "we must stand-up against; bias, hatred, bigotry and ignorance."

Barr, 65, responded, "i created the platform for that inclusivity and you know it. ME. You throw me under the bus. nice!"

She responded simply "Wow! unreal" to Gilbert's statement from Tuesday calling Barr's tweet "abhorrent."

Barr tweeted or retweeted over 70 messages after her initial apology 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 sent dozens more direct replies to Twitter users.

Many of the tweets defended Barr's comments, saying she was not racist and attempting to point out the perceived hypocrisy on Disney’s part. Barr also claimed she did not know Jarrett was black, first saying she believed she was Saudi, then Jewish and Persian and finally that she believed Jarrett was white.

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She blamed the initial tweet about Jarrett on the sleep medication Ambien, although she later deleted multiple tweets with references to the prescription drug. The first of those tweets said, "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."

The maker of Ambien, Sanofi, responded to the claim.

Barr finally signed off for the evening at 3 a.m., tweeting, "thanks for all your kind comments, everyone! Love u all goodnight."

She then sent two more retweets, including a defense from InfoWars editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the matter on Twitter.

Cox Media Group