What were the exact words of Roseanne Barr's tweet about Valerie Jarrett on May 29 2018?

1. How the Tweet Was Reported and Quoted Verbatim — The Immediate Media Narrative

News organizations covering the May 29, 2018 incident consistently quoted the same phrasing as the tweet: "Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj." Contemporary reports reproduced that exact string while describing the post as racist and directed at former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett; outlets framed the tweet as the proximate cause of ABC’s decision to cancel the show within hours ^{[1] [4] [3]}. Those reports also noted the tweet was deleted and that Barr later issued apologies and explanations, but the initial media framing emphasized the tweet’s language and the rapid institutional consequences it provoked ^{[5] [6]}.

2. Why Multiple Outlets Matched on the Same Quotation — Convergence of Sourcing

Major outlets including CNN, BBC, NPR, and others reported the tweet identically, reflecting a convergence on the same textual quote and reinforcing the claim that this was the exact wording posted by Barr on that date. Aggregated summaries and later retrospectives continued to cite the same phrasing when explaining the controversy and its fallout, indicating that contemporaneous reporting and later cataloguing preserved the original wording as the factual basis for condemnation and network action ^{[2] [7]}. This alignment across independent outlets strengthens confidence in the precise quoted text as the canonical version cited in news coverage.

3. Context Around the Tweet — Thread, Deletion, and Immediate Aftermath

Reporting showed the tweet appeared within a thread and was deleted soon after; news coverage emphasized that the line targeted Jarrett’s race and heritage by combining a political group and a dehumanizing pop-culture reference, which many outlets and public figures called racist. ABC’s cancellation decision, documented in multiple reports, was tied directly to the tweet’s content and the speed of public backlash, with subsequent pieces focusing on Barr’s apology, network statements, and commentary about platform accountability ^{[8] [9]}. The narrative arc in media accounts moved from the quoted text to institutional responses and debates about consequences.

4. Divergent Framing and Potential Agendas in Coverage — What Was Emphasized

Although the verbatim quote was consistent across reports, outlets emphasized different aspects: some foregrounded the racial nature of the comment and the network’s corporate response, while others included Barr’s stated intent or broader discussions about celebrity speech and cancel culture. These editorial choices reflect differing priorities—some organizations focused on the harm of the rhetoric and the swift accountability measures, while others contextualized Barr’s history on social media and presented her apologies—revealing how framing choices can influence public perception even when the quoted text is the same ^{[6] [1]}.

5. Documentary Certainty and Persistent Citations — The Quote’s Role in the Record

Subsequent analyses, retrospectives, and academic references continue to cite the same short string as the operative quote from May 29, 2018; that repetition across time and source types has made the line the de facto textual record of the incident in mainstream coverage. The repeated citation in contemporaneous reporting and later summaries functions as documentary confirmation within public discourse, and those same pieces remain the principal sources for understanding why the tweet produced such an immediate and decisive institutional response ^{[4] [7]}.