Roseanne Barr: ‘We’re Lucky’ to Have Trump as President, ‘Great for Comedy’

PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 08: Executive producer/actress Roseanne Barr of the television show
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Daniel Nussbaum

Roseanne Barr said the country is lucky to have President Donald Trump and explained why she thinks Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election in an interview Thursday night ahead of the March revival of her classic sitcom Roseanne.

“He talked about jobs. That’s what you need to do if you want working people to vote for you. Not Syrian airspace,” Barr told ABC’s 20/20 Thursday night in a special about the sitcom revival. “I don’t think Hillary talked about jobs much. She was always talking about Syrian airspace. Do you think people in America care? Maybe they do, I didn’t, though.”

Barr added that the 2016 presidential matchup proved to be a boon to television comedy writing.

“Trump offended half of America and she offended the other half, so that’s great for sitcoms,” Barr said. “It’s great for comedy. We’re lucky to have him as a president, it’s great for comedy.”

Barr and other original cast members from the hit 1990s sitcom, including John Goodman, Sara Gilbert, and Laurie Metcalf, are set to reprise their roles in a new season premiering March 27 on ABC.

At the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena in January, Barr revealed that her character in the new series would be a Trump supporter.

“I’ve always attempted to portray a realistic portrait of the American people and of working class people. And in fact it was working class people who elected Trump,” she said then.

The actress also pushed back against a reporter who asked her to justify the character’s support for Trump.

“I’m not a Trump apologist,” Barr said. “There are a lot of things he’s said and done I don’t agree with, like there’s probably a lot of things Hillary Clinton has done and said that you don’t agree with. No one’s brainwashed into agreeing with 100 percent of what anybody says, let alone a politician or a candidate.”

Barr was a vocal supporter of Trump since before the 2016 race.

In a June 2016 interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the actress said she was supporting Trump because his campaign had stressed that “the order of law matters.”

“I think we would be so lucky if Trump won,” she said then. “Because then it wouldn’t be Hillary.”

 

Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum

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