Actor and producer Roseanne Barr got into a Twitter spat Chelsea Clinton on Tuesday, during which she said liberal billionaire George Soros is a Nazi “who turned in his fellow Jews [to] be murdered” and stole their wealth.
[Also read: ABC cancels ‘Roseanne’ after star’s ‘repugnant’ Twitter rant]
The exchange began with Barr tweeting late Monday, “Chelsea Soros Clinton,” appearing to imply that she 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 later offered an apology to Clinton, 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?”
A spokesman for Soros later shared a sharp rebuke to Barr 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.
[Also read: Wanda Sykes quits ‘Roseanne’ over Roseanne Barr’s Twitter rant]
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.
Barr’s Twitter tirade Tuesday morning also included shots at former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, calling her a product of Muslim Brotherhood and the “Planet of the Apes.” She later called it a “bad joke” and apologized.
Amid fallout to her Twitter rant, ABC canceled the successful reboot of her sitcom, “Roseanne.”
