Roseanne Barr Claims ABC ‘Spied’ on Her Over Pro-Trump Views Before Firing

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Roseanne Barr launched a fresh political broadside against her former employers at ABC, accusing the network of having “spied” on her and censoring her pro-MAGA views before her firing in 2018.

In a new interview with Daily Mail on Friday, the 72-year-old comedian claimed executives “spied” on her and were “waiting for me to slip up,” citing her support for President Donald Trump as the reason for their alleged surveillance.

“They monitored everything I did,” she said. “They wanted to censor me from the very beginning.”

Barr was axed from her eponymous sitcom reboot in 2018 after posting a tweet about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, likening her to the “Muslim brotherhood & Planet of the Apes.” ABC executives labelled the tweet “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values,” and swiftly cancelled the show, despite strong ratings.

She now insists the tweet was misinterpreted by what she calls “liberal Hollywood elites” and had “nothing to do with race,” instead arguing it was a clumsy critique of the Iran nuclear deal.

“The tweet was intended as a humorous political statement and not a racial one,” Barr told the outlet. “But liberals in Hollywood are so racist, they automatically think of a black person.”

The network spun off The Conners without her, and killed off her character with an opioid overdose. Barr, meanwhile, retreated from public life, relocating to Texas. She now says apologising at the time was a mistake: “The worst mistake you can do is apologise to the left. Then they are on a crusade against you.”

Barr, who remains a vocal Trump supporter, claims her outspoken politics made her persona non grata in liberal circles.

Her version of events will be explored in an upcoming documentary, Roseanne Barr is America, set for release on 10 June.