Actor and producer Roseanne Barr calling George Soros a Nazi “who turned in his fellow Jews [to] be murdered” and stole their wealth warranted a sharp rebuke from the liberal billionaire’s camp.
A spokesman for Soros said in a statement: “Such false allegations are insulting to the victims of the Holocaust, to all Jewish people, and to anyone who honors the truth.”
“They are an affront to Mr. Soros and his family, who against the odds managed to survive one of the darkest moments in our history,” the spokesman added, according to the New York Times’ Kenneth Vogel.
Barr became mired in controversy Tuesday after she said on Twitter that former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett looked like a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and “Planet of the Apes.” In the ensuing fallout, ABC canceled the highly successful reboot of her sitcom “Roseanne,” calling her Twitter rant “repugnant.”
Barr later apologized, calling the remark a “bad joke,” and said she was “leaving” Twitter.
She also apologized to Chelsea Clinton on Tuesday after a brief back-and-forth which began with Barr calling her “Chelsea Soros Clinton,” appearing to imply that the former first daughter married into Soros’ family.
“Good morning Roseanne – my given middle name is Victoria,” Clinton said in reply Tuesday morning. “I imagine George Soros’s nephews are lovely people. I’m just not married to one. I am grateful for the important work @OpenSociety does in the world. Have a great day!”
Clinton married Marc Mezvinsky, who is not related to Soros, in 2010, and together the couple have two children. Chelsea is the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, a former U.S. senator and U.S. secretary of state.
Barr offered an apology to Clinton later in the day, but in doing so perpetuated a conspiracy theory about Soros.
“Sorry to have tweeted incorrect info about you!I Please forgive me! By the way, George Soros is a nazi who turned in his fellow Jews 2 be murdered in German concentration camps & stole their wealth-were you aware of that? But, we all make mistakes, right Chelsea?”
Sorry to have tweeted incorrect info about you!I Please forgive me! By the way, George Soros is a nazi who turned in his fellow Jews 2 be murdered in German concentration camps & stole their wealth-were you aware of that? But, we all make mistakes, right Chelsea?
— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 29, 2018
Soros, a favorite target of the Right, has been subject to conspiracy theories in the past.
A Snopes article dives into rumors that he was a member of the Schutzstaffel, storm troopers of the Nazi Party, or a Nazi collaborator who aided in efforts to confiscate property from Jewish people. Snopes deemed this false.
Soros was born in Hungary to a Jewish family in 1930. He and his family survived Nazi occupation “by securing false identity papers, concealing their backgrounds, and helping others do the same,” according to his Open Society Foundation.
Soros was defended by the Anti-Defamation League in 2010 when conservative commentator Glenn Beck ran with a similar conspiracy theory about Soros.
“This is the height of ignorance or insensitivity, or both,” said Abraham Foxman, who was the national director of the Anti-Defamation League at the time.
