Rosie O’Donnell Shuts Down Photographer, Makes Twitter Account Private After Trump Video Backlash
Rosie O’Donnell is talking, but it’s not about her apology to Melania Trump. O’Donnell recently apologized to the incoming First Lady for sharing a video that speculated whether Trump’s 10-year-old son, Barron, may be autistic. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Rosie apologized to Melania in a pinned tweet before swiftly setting her Twitter account to private.
“I apologize to @MELANIATRUMP – I was insensitive in my RT – I am sorry for the pain I caused – it was not my intent – I am truly sorry,” Rosie wrote.
Rosie O’Donnell received a ton of backlash after sharing the viral seven-minute video created by YouTuber James Hunter. Rosie was even labeled “a bully” by critics. The video, titled “Barron Trump Autistic?” was ultimately removed from the popular video-sharing site, but not before O’Donnell shared it to her nearly 1 million followers and said if the child is autistic it would be “an amazing opportunity to bring attention to the AUTISM epidemic.”
Rosie O’Donnell has a huge presence on Twitter, so it is a little surprising that she has now marked her account as private. The former talk show host has posted more than 36,000 tweets, but now only confirmed followers will be able to see them. As of this writing, Rosie O’Donnell has kept her Instagram page public.
Shortly after Rosie O’Donnell sparked outrage with her post about Barron, she took to her website, Rosie.com, to explain why she felt so passionate about the subject. According to Us Weekly, in her post, Rosie revealed that her 3-year-old adopted daughter, Dakota, has recently been diagnosed with high-functioning autism.
“1 in 55 kids is an epidemic/ Donald and I agree on that/ and not much else,” Rosie wrote. O’Donnell also added that she has “no ill will” towards Trump’s children, despite her ongoing feud with the president-elect.
In addition to Rosie’s apology, Hunter also explained his video and issued his own apology, saying he never meant his clip to be a “bullying video.”
“I made this because I truly believed Barron was on the spectrum, and I wanted people to stop bullying him of his ‘weird’ behavior and explain to them that it might actually be due to a condition,” Hunter wrote. “I never meant to hurt anyone.”
Rosie O'Donnell apologizes to Melania Trump for speculating that Barron could be autistic https://t.co/lnAulrrsel pic.twitter.com/pKuSRHhqEw
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 1, 2016
Of course, Rosie’s now private tweet will likely be the last time she talks about the video or her apology to Melania Trump. TMZ posted a video of a photographer trying to talk to O’Donnell about the situation at Los Angeles International airport, but Rosie gave him nothing.
O’Donnell effectively shut down the stunned photographer and turned the tables on him. After the photographer repeatedly asked Rosie about Melania and Barron, the talk show guru used her own interviewing skills to grill him on his name, age, and his own personal life. By the time the duo’s short walk to Rosie’s car was complete, the frustrated interviewer told O’Donnell that his name was Sam, that he has one child, and that he is the middle child in a family of seven feuding siblings.
As for her own feuds, Rosie O’Donnell’s public feud with Donald Trump started more than a decade ago when she was a co-host on The View. During a Hot Topics chat, Rosie likened the future president to “the snake oil salesman” from Little House on the Prairie. Trump predicted Rosie’s second stint on The View would be a massive failure and he has called her names like “a slob, “a loser” and “a pig,” and even defended his name-calling during one of his presidential debates.
Take a look at the video below for more on Melania Trump’s reaction to the video that Rosie O’Donnell shared about her son.
[Featured Image by Cindy Ord/Getty Images]
