Some of roseannes tweets they just affirm abcs decision to cancel her show and fire her. Theres retweets portraying her as a victim. But some apologies. Barr said to her fan, dont defend me. Its sweet of to you try, but losing my show is nothing compared to being labeled a racist over one tweet that i regret even more. Remember, there was more than one tweet but lets move on to the next one. She also said, i did something unforgivable, dont defend me. It was 2 00 in the morning and i was ambien tweeting. It was memorial day weekend. I went too far. It was ageej justice and indefensible. Shes blaming ambien but later in the morning she deleted that post. She continued on saying please dont boycott abc. Im not a censor. They have a right to do whatever they wish. Its okay. Shes thanking her fans. She went on by wrpg to a fan. Im not a racist, im just an idiot that made a bad joke. I gave them the weapon to kill me. I was not equipped to take all the heat. I cracked and made a student, insensitive joke. Its my fault. Of course a lot of folks dont think she was making a joke at all. I was really struck by something her longtime producing partner tom warner said in a statement to deadline. Com overnight. Hes been her partner for decades but he said she needs help, maybe therapy or counseling. Heres what he said, i support abcs decision to cancel the show. I hope the good work of the show is not totally eclipsed by these offensive comments and that roseanne seeks the help she so clearly needs. Brian, this is far from the first time that shes tweeted racist things. She did it about susan rice five years ago. She called george soros a nazi. Valerie jarrett is responding to all of this. Yes. Not to reply on twitter but instead to speak about this at a previously scheduled town hall. Heres a part of how she addressed it. First of all, i think we have to turn it into a teaching moment. Im fine. Im worried about all the people out there who doesnt have a circle of friends and followers who come right to their defense, the person whos walking down the street minding their own business and they see somebody cling to their purse or walk across the street. Those ordinary examples of racism thap every single day. And certainly this incident has people talking about racism and what is happening in america society. Im really struck by the outpouring of reactions against Roseanne Barr. She does have millions of fans, some of whom are following her on twitter, still trying to promote her right now. Its unfortunate how she and some of her fans are so susceptible to these kinds of racist and conspiracy theories that shes still promoting today. Thank you. Stay with us. Joining us in this conversation for a much deeper look Michelle Turner and gary levin. Thank you very much for being here. Gary, let me ask you, as brian outlined, this is repeating history here for Roseanne Barr. Susan rice retweeted a tweet from roseanne calling her an ape in 2013. She called george soros a nazi. She said this abhorrent thing about Valerie Jarrett. A lot of this happened before abc rehired her and decided to, you know, put this sitcom back on television. So why did abc take the risk in the first place . I guess it was a calculated risk on their part. They knew that she was controversial, they knew that she had a big fan base. Her show, the last time it aired, was a massive hit. I thought i think they felt that she had sort of calmed down a little bit and she knew what she was getting in to and that they would they would live with it to the point where it was it was okay, but i think it quickly escalated beyond that point and they realized they had a problem before this last incident happened. When you look at how abc responded here, responding pretty swiftly and certainly critics of what roseanne had said and of roseanne, this is the way it should be. This is how fast this should have happened. Does abc deserve the praise its getting . Well, yes, just on the surface, yes. I guess im not really one who likes to give a lot of hand claps to somebody for doing something right and doing something that they should do. I dont think they did anything above and beyond what was responsible, what was Corporate Responsibility in this case and a lot of people feel that same way. You guys were talking about the risk they took. They did know that they were taking a risk by bringing the show back. Thats one of the reasons why they only gave it nine episodes for the first season. They were testing the waters with this show. Then when they renewed it for season two, usually shows get 22 episodes. They gave it 13 episodes. They still were testing the waters here, trying to see, okay, is this all right. Do we really want to get in fully with rows anne and like were seeing now they dont because of what happened. The lesson my mom always taught me, you are who you surround yourself with. Brian, listen to what roseanne said back in march. I really hope that it opens up, you know, civil conversation between people instead of just mudslinging. I really do because i think we need to be more civilized than that. A civil conversation, no mudslinging. Shes mudslinger and chief today. Shes trying to have it both ways. I had a source at disney say to me, yesterday, Roseanne Connor is not Roseanne Barr. Roseanne connor is hilarious and warm and someone you want to watch on tv. When shes playing that character, thats someone you want to watch. Roseanne barr is not able to control or restrain herself. Theres no excuse for that. Just take the phone away. Just put the twitter device down. Its as easy as that. She stepped it in again and again and again and enough was enough. There was no way to come back from this. Her tweets on tuesday were quote unquote, unsurvivable. And her apologies are odd as well. Theyre uncensored. Shes even saying to her supporters, dont defend me, dont boycott abc, but then shes blaming it on ambien. When shes faulting ambien, how seriously can you take the apology part . You really cant. I think shes just floundering to fine some excuse where her where she can escape the p. R. Debacle that it is. She said all the right things in march when the first came on the air. Shes a new person. Shes not going to do politics. But, of course, i just think she cant help herself. Something interesting that some are pointing out is that, they say, look, this is this is liberal hollywood acting so fast to fire roseanne, to cancel the show, acting much faster than it acted to respond to the allegations against Harvey Weinstein and roseanne even retweeted some of these claims in the last 24 hours or so. Any merit to that . Is that fair criticism . Well, its a little like comparing apples and oranges but theyre right in the fact that they did act much quicker in this case than hollywood did react to Harvey Weinstein. I think were in a different era now. Harvey weinstein may be one of the reasons they acted so quickly in this case because there has become or is becoming, but there is becoming this kind of zero tolerance policy for any of these type of antics in hollywoods where we didnt see that a couple years ago. We didnt see them reacting as quick. We saw a situation with Charlie Sheen and his show a few years back but that took a lot going on there and that show wasnt called the Charlie Sheen show so they could get away with replacing him and keeping the show, but this has been very swift. Its been very quick. I dont think that we can dismiss the fact that the head of abc entertainment is a black woman. I think this also hit her where she lives and its hard to overlook that when she is talking about someone who looks like you. Its hard to brush that aside. One really quick followup, i know you had a personal experience with this once you saw this coming through, went to your bosses on this one. I did. Let me just previous face this by saying, whenever ive interviewed roseanne, shes been lovely to me and very nice. Once this came through yesterday, we all have to draw the line and i was at a point yesterday where i said enough is enough myself and this is before the show was canceled and any of that when i saw the tweet. I did go to my bosses and said, listen, i feel like theres some very hard questions that these people need to answer, that roseanne needs to answer and until we do that, i cant cover this show any more. I cant do it as a woman, as a black woman, as a human being. I cant smile and just be ask fluff questions of this cast and of this woman when shes saying things like this so until that happens i no longer want to cover the show. Gary, its really hard at this point in time to separate Roseanne Barr from Roseanne Connor, but what youre hearing from people who like the show, who are sad to see it go is they say, look, i would look at this show and i would see a debate going on in this family that reflects my family more than other sitcomes that i could watch. I wonder now how this effects networks as they try to strike the balance between programming for a broad swath of america. You just hit on an unfortunate side effect of all of this in that there has been criticism that middle class, average americans have not been properly reflected on television. There was a show on abc that followed roseanne called the middle, that just ended. Theres two few shows like that that talk about real americans and their struggles because television is like an aspirational medium and people want to see people that they strive toward, so that is unfortunate. Im hopeful that the networks will see the appeal that roseanne had separate from the difficulties that the star created and learn from that and learn from the popularity of the show. It was the top rated show. If i could add one detail to that. Lets not rule out the possibility of a version of this show without roseanne. This is a lot of attention later today. Theres a lot of people in hollywood that would like to see some of the cast members and crew not use their jobs or be out of work but instead have some reboot of the reboot. I asked a very well placed source about this a few minutes ago, the source said, quote, there will be a time to sit down and look at all the options. I read that as the door being wide open. Yeah. To the possibility of a roseanne without roseanne. Its interesting, yesterday, mindy kaling just tweeted and we know her from the mindy projects, but shes a writer. John goodman, laurie metcalf, let me write some things for you. She has some ideas. You never know what could happen. You never know what could come out of this. I dont think abc would redo the show in some form, but you never know what could happen. The problem with it the problem, brian, is that roseanne is not only the star of the show, shes an executive producer and the creator of the show, so any change they would make to the show, a reboot without her she would still profit from, she would have approval over so takes more complicated situation. Good point. Thank you guys so much. We do appreciate the conversation and still to come, the president wants cheered on roegs anne for her ratings but will he condemn her for the racist tweet. Hes still staying silence. The president asked the attorney general to reverse his division to recuse himself. What that means for Robert Muellers special investigation. Plus the swipe the president took at sessions just moments ago. The unraveling of a conspiracy theory. Republican congressman trey gowdy has seen all the intel about the president s claims of a spy, the unfounded claims and he tells the country the fbi acted just fine. The president s not going to like that. Hi im joan lunden. Todays Senior Living communities have never been better, with amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. And theres never been an easier way to get great advice. A place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. A place for mom. You know your family we know Senior Living. Together well make the right choice. Behr presents ordinary versus overachiever. Behr premium plus, behr through it all with a toprated paint at a great price. Find it exclusively at the home depot. Sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. [park announcer] all military members stand and be recognized. Sometimes fans cheer for those who wear a different uniform. No matter where or when you served, tmobile stands ready to serve you. Thats why were providing half off family lines to all military. Everyone has an opinion on roseanne but so far silent is President Trump and this is notable given his recent praise of the conservative sitcom star. Look at roseanne. I called her yesterday. Look at her ratings. Look at her ratings. I got a call from mark burnett. He did the apprentice. Great guy. Donald, i called just to say hello and to tell you, did you see roseannes ratings . I said, mark, how big were they . They were unbelievable. 18 Million People and it was about us. They havent figure it had out. The fake news hasnt quite figure it had out yet. Joining us now we have cnn political commentators. Good morning. Good morning. And so tara, i wonder if you could listen to some of the things President Trump has said because some people are drawing a line here between the tone he has set and the tone that roseanne has carried out. Im one of those people. Is President Trump directly responsible for what roseanne says and does, no. Has his own rhetoric, his own racially inflammatory comments, not only throughout his career but during the campaign and still while in office, has that set a tone thats emboldened people like roseanne who have these awful bigoted, racist view points on things, has that emboldened them to think its okay now to publicly behave like that or say those things, yeah, i think it does. Theres no way you can ignore that the president of the United States who has the bully pulpit, the most powerful position in the world, the level of influence he has. His behavior and words and what he condelz and doesnt condemn matters. It sets a tone. I dont care what anybody says. It has been accelerated with the way donald trump behaves. Lets listen to some of that. Lets roll it. You also had people that were very fine people, on both sides look at my africanamerican over here. When mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre bringing drugs, theyre bringing crime, theyre rapist. Wouldnt you love to see one of these nfl owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a [ bleep ] off the field right now. They call her pocahontas. So ben ferguson, theres also the refusal the president to immediately denounce kkk grand wizard david duke. Democrats draw a direct line between the president at the top setting the tone and people like roseanne writing what she wrote, is that fair . I think roseanne has been someone that is for a long time pushed limits and i dont think that you can blame that on donald trump. I think shes a grown adult. She should be held accountable for her own words. Clearly what she said, she apologized for, took it down and said it was wrong. I dont think you can blame donald trump for any of roseannes antics. Look back over the last 30 or 20 years of her career. Shes always pushed the limit. She pushed the limits the first time the show was on the air. She pushed the limits the second time it was on the air. What she wrote was wrong and inexcusable but this has been consistent with roseannes. They knew they were taking a risk with her. That has nothing to do with donald trump so to somehow claim that donald trump is responsible or somehow influenced roseanne and her antics which have had a massive history of pushing the line i think is basic like a child saying, well, he made me do it. Theyre both grown adults. Lets hold them accountable individually for what they do and not imply that donald trump made this happen when he didnt. Thats not what i said. Thats not what i said. I think youre implying that its the culture that hes brought out is somehow she should do this. No, i felt i think that the fact that even abc given her a Second Chance with the reboot on the show is something that probably never would have happened under the Obama Administration because of how dis applicable roseanne is and how low class and trashys shes been and racist and antisemitic, the list goes on and on that both kinds of things were not those kinds of things were were not acceptable before donald trump came along. Hes pushed the envelope because so many conservatives and im a conservative and im calling it out. Too many conservatives have decided that Donald Trumps racist and bigoted behavior and obnoxiousness on a lot of other things are okay just because as long as they get a policy. Heres my point, though. Heres my point. Then explain to me why abc espn can now bring back keith observerman who has referred to the president as the mfer they shouldnt. I want to focus on what were talking about here. Thats an important point. Its the same company. They dont they fire roseanne. They bring him back. He wrote a book referring to the presidency as a f bomb. They withheld an episode on blackish. You do believe that roseanne was targeted because she was a conservative supporting trump. To be clear theres a lot more going on here, though, right . Shes peddled conspiracy theories. Shes said what she said about susan rice as well as Valerie Jarrett which susan rice retweeted. She called sure. She tweet that had george soros was a nazi. I understand while you laud that shes someone who through her show has represented conservatives or the show has represented conservatives, they feel akinship with the characters and with the show, why is it that the person you want reflecting a wide swath of americans would be someone like this . I wouldve never picked her in the first place. I dont think she represents me truly. I think the show was having an open dialogue and it had many diverse viewpoints whether it be her sister or nieces or anyone else in the show. The show if you watch the actual show, it had one extreme to the other extreme and they had a conversation about it, which is why people enjoyed it. Why many conservatives are very upset that she was, in fact, fired after, by the way, apologizing, taking the tweet down and saying do not defend me, i am s