Roseanne Barr on Her Firing: ‘I’m Sorry for the Misunderstanding’

The controversial actress and entertainer Roseanne Barr made her return to television on Thursday night to speak about being fired from ABC in late May because of a tweet deemed by many to be racist.

Barr spoke with Fox News host Sean Hannity for nearly an hour on “Hannity,” hitting a wide array of topics but primarily focusing on her firing and her right-leaning political views.

Barr’s firing came after she said former President Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett looked like a cross between “the Muslim Brotherhood and ‘Planet of the Apes.'”

“I didn’t know she was African-American,” Barr told Hannity. “I assumed … she was from Iran and she lived in Iran for such a long time. If she’s watching, I’m so sorry you thought I was racist and you thought that my tweet was racist because it wasn’t. It was political.”

“I’m sorry for the misunderstanding that caused my ill-worded tweet,” Barr added. “I’m sorry that you feel harmed and hurt — I never meant that. For that, I apologize. I never meant to hurt anybody or say anything negative about an entire race of people. My 30 years of work can attest to that.”

As a comedian, Barr had to end it with a joke. She said of Jarrett, “Plus, I’d tell her she needs to get a new haircut.”

Since she is Jewish and has close friends of different races, Barr said she was horrified at being labeled a racist. She added she was “shocked” at the blowback she received for one tweet.

“It’s about the worst thing you can call a Jewish person, especially someone like me who grew up around Holocaust survivors,” said Barr.

Interestingly enough, Barr said that if she fought hard enough, she might have actually been able to keep the show “Roseanne” alive instead of seeing it killed off and replaced with an upcoming spinoff — with which she has no involvement. She told Sean Hannity that her contract with ABC had a clause that would allot her 24 hours to correct any mistakes she made.

In reality, however, she was fired roughly 40 minutes after sending out her controversial tweet. She said the network would not give her an opportunity to appear on any of their talk shows, such as “The View,” to give her side of the story.

Such a clause in Barr’s contract would make sense given her controversial past. After all, Barr has stated that 9/11 was an inside job; she is strongly against vaccination and GMO use; she has tweeted about “Jewish mind control”; and she performed a rendition of the national anthem in 1990 that then-President George H.W. Bush called “disgraceful” — just to name a few of her bizarre actions.

Related: Five Liberal Stars Who Said Far Worse Things Than Roseanne Ever Did

When speaking about her political views, Barr described herself as “middle-of-the-road” but admitted that when she was younger she was very much a leftist.

“I woke up and saw that both extremes were not where my values are. My values are in the middle. I believe that we have the right to have accountability and ask where our tax money goes.”

Although she supports President Donald Trump now, back in 2012 Barr ran for president for the Peace and Freedom Party, a left-wing party. She was endorsed by the Green Party’s Black Caucus and received 0.05 percent of the popular vote nationally.

Barr may be without a job for now, but she continues to try to rectify her controversial moment and regain the public’s admiration.

Despite her past leanings, Barr has made it clear she loathes the Iran deal and was not happy the Obama administration “shipped pallets of cash to another country without going through Congress.”

“I don’t think a state that kills gays, stones rape victims where people don’t have drinking water and people have no rights — I don’t think that is like America,” she said of Iran. “America is a place where I, a loud-mouthed old gorgeous Jewish woman comedian, am allowed freedom of speech.”

Barr may be without a job for now, but she continues to try to rectify her controversial moment and regain the public’s admiration.

In a culture of so much outrage, it may be difficult, but that is not stopping her.

Tom Joyce is a freelance writer from the South Shore of Massachusetts. He covers sports, pop culture, and politics and has contributed to The Federalist, Newsday and other outlets.