Fox’s Harris Faulkner On Roseanne’s Racist Tweet: ‘I Don’t Understand It To Be Anything Other Than Free Speech’

Fox’s Harris Faulkner On Roseanne’s Racist Tweet: ‘I Don’t Understand It To Be Anything Other Than Free Speech’

Right after ABC announced it had canceled its hit sitcom revival Roseanne after star Roseanne Barr sent out a racist tweet comparing former Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett to an ape, Fox News host Harris Faulkner presented Barr’s comments within the context of “free speech.”

Moderating a panel discussion on Outnumbered Overtime, Faulkner noted that ABC had just canceled the series. Democratic strategist Jessica Tarlov said that Barr’s tweet was “racist to the nth degree,” leading Republican strategist Noelle Nikpour to state that we live in “politically correct world now” and it just isn’t “nice” to say things like that.

This led to the two kinda battling a bit, with Tarlov insisting that it was “racism” and Nikpour largely refusing to describe it as such, instead declaring that it was “mean-spirited” and “ugly.” Faulkner then jumped in with this observation:

“I don’t understand it to be anything other than free speech…It is extremely offensive but it is just that. So she says in one of her tweets — there were three rapid-fire today — ‘it was a joke. It was a miscalculated joke.’”

Nikpour agreed with Faulkner, adding that Barr is a “comedian” and that she has a “very wicked, twisted sense of humor.”

“Everybody knows her to be a little raunchy and a little rough,” Nikpour added.

Taking the show to break, Faulkner then concluded the segment by stating that Roseanne’s show had been “canceled by ABC after she put out a racist tweet.”

Watch the segment below, via ThinkProgress’s Aaron Rupar:

Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the founder/publisher of Contemptor and a contributor to The Daily Beast. He was previously the Cable News Correspondent for Mediaite and prior to starting Contemptor, he worked on the editorial staff of PoliticusUSA. During that time, he had his work quoted by USA Today and BBC News, among others. Justin began his published career as a political writer for 411Mania. He resides in St. Louis, MO with his wife and pets.

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