Thursday on ABC’s “The View,” comedian Norm Macdonald continued his apology tour after his controversial comments about the #MeToo movement, Louis C.K., Chris Hardwick, and Roseanne Barr.
Macdonald apologized for saying, “You’d have to have Down Syndrome” to not feel sorry for sexual assault victims during an appearance on “The Howard Stern Show.”
Macdonald said, “It’s always bad when you have to apologize for an apology.”
He continued, “There’s a word we used to use to mean stupid. I was about to say that word, and then I stopped and thought about what’s the right word to say. I realized at that moment I did something unforgivable.”
Macdonald added, “The remark I made about people with Down syndrome was just a terrible, terrible, terrible thing for me to say.”
On Hardwick, Macdonald elaborated,”Print reporters, they ask you questions and they put them all together. What I was talking about was Chris Hardwick, a particular comedian, a friend of mine. You know, if 500 women go against a man, obviously the guy is guilty. But the Chris Hardwick one, it was one woman against one man. So I was saying that I thought it was good that the pendulum has swung and Chris Hardwick is rehabilitated as much as he’s going to get. He still tells me he can’t walk down the street without people yelling stuff at him. That’s all I was trying to say.”
On Barr, Macdonald said, “I called her the next day and she was crying the whole time I was talking to her. I’ve known Roseanne for a while and I was worried about her because she seemed really, really in a bad place. And I said, I can’t really talk to you about this because I’ve never been through anything like this. I said I know Louis and he’s been through this where he’s had everything taken from him. And I said not many of us have gone through this and so you should talk to each other because you’ve — and then the guy said what about the victims? I said the victims haven’t gone through this. I was talking about this particular event. Of course the victims have gone through worse than that.”
He added, “I was really concerned about Roseanne and, you know, I don’t want someone to end up killing themselves.”
On the controversy his comments have caused, Macdonald said, “I have been surprised because I never did anything. I spoke. I don’t want to be tossed in with people who did, not crimes, but sins. I barely have consensual sex.”
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