After initially refusing to comment or publicly respond, “Saturday Night Live” has indefinitely suspended one of its writers, Katie Rich, for her Inauguration Day tweets that targeted Donald Trump’s 10-year old son, Barron.
Rich tweeted during Trump’s inauguration, “Barron will be this country’s first homeschool shooter.” After receiving immediate backlash, Rich deleted the tweet. A petition on change.org calling for the firing of the writer has over 65,000 signatures as of this writing.
“Barron Trump deserves the chance every child does — to be a kid,” Chelsea Clinton wrote on Facebook.
Rich ultimately deleted her Twitter account, and she was not credited as a writer in the last episode of “Saturday Night Live” — which aired one day after the inauguration and the original “joke.”
Rich has written for “SNL” since 2013, and the network has still refused to publicly comment on the situation. However, a source familiar with the issue revealed on Monday to Deadline that the writer was suspended immediately after the tweet. NBC had previously told Fox News that “NBC will not be commenting.” A rep for “SNL” had also denied a request to comment from The Washington Post.
Related: ‘SNL’ Writer Bullies Donald Trump’s Son
No matter one’s feelings about the president, children do not ask to be put in the spotlight and should not be cyberbullied by desperate comedians looking for low blows. Rich reactivated her Twitter account on Monday afternoon to post an apology saying, “I sincerely apologize for the insensitive tweet. I deeply regret my actions & offensive words. It was inexcusable & I’m so sorry.”
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Young Barron Trump was already the victim of public bullying from the Left when comedian Rosie O’Donnell commented through social media that Barron might be autistic. She used her strange accusations as a platform to call Donald Trump a liar. After serious backlash and the hiring of a lawyer by first lady Melania Trump, O’Donnell publicly apologized.
Coming to Barron Trump’s defense was Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Hillary and Bill Clinton. Having been a child in the public eye when her father was president, she has no interest in seeing Barron as the target of the president’s critics. “Barron Trump deserves the chance every child does — to be a kid,” she wrote on Facebook, adding pointedly, “Standing up for every kid also means opposing POTUS policies that hurt kids.”
“Saturday Night Live” already has a shaky relationship with the Trump family. Alec Baldwin frequently does an impression of Donald Trump that Trump himself has criticized. The show has also been accused for years of having a serious leftist bent. However, when it comes to the well-being of a child, politics should be out of the equation.
This article has been updated to reflect the latest developments.
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