Rosie O’Donnell is eating her words after she falsely claimed that the transgender Minneapolis Catholic school shooter was a MAGA supporter in a hate-fueled social media rant last week.
The former talk show host and fierce Trump critic, 63, who resides in Ireland after fleeing the US over the commander in chief’s second term in office, dangerously suggested that shooter Robin Westman — who killed two children and injured 18 parishioners — was a “Republican, MAGA person, white supremacist” in a TikTok rant.
After realizing that her conspiracy-laden tirade on social media was factually incorrect, O’Donnell took to social media to issue a groveling apology.
“I know a lot of you were very upset about the video I made before I went away for a few days,” she said in a TikTok video shared Sunday. “You are right and I did not do my due diligence before I made that emotional statement.”
“I said things about the shooter that were incorrect,” O’Donnell continued. “I assumed, like most shooters, they followed a standard MO and had standard feelings of you know, NRA-loving kind of gun people.”
“The truth is, I messed up and when you mess up, you fess up. I’m sorry, this is my apology video and I hope it’s enough.”
O’Donnell’s claims were immediately proved false after it emerged that the 23-year-old shooter in fact had scribbled “Kill Donald Trump” on one of his gun magazines.
Still, it didn’t stop the “League of Their Own” star from doubling down.
“Saw about the Minnesota shooting, and it brought me right back to Columbine in 1999 when I just could not get it through my head that students in American were shooting each other in schools,” she falsely asserted on TikTok.
“This was a church inside a Catholic school. And what do you know? This was a white guy, Republican, MAGA person, what do you know? White supremacist.”
“The NRA is a terrorist organization. And they have been for many years,” she said, before blasting America for valuing guns over kids.
“When is enough, enough America? Haven’t you had enough of Donald Trump? The Heritage Foundation? All their bulls–t? He’s their puppet … but guess what? It’s coming to an end.”
Despite her claims, Westman was a self-identified transgender woman who had a nihilistic viewpoint and an obsession with past mass shooters.
The shooter also left behind a final video message and handwritten manifesto pages declaring he had been “plotting for so long” and sneering “f–k those kids” — as well as statements of despair over gender identity.
Law enforcement, fact-checkers and national media have all found no links to the Republican Party, MAGA movement or white supremacist organizations.
Here’s what we know about the Catholic school shooting in Minneapolis
Elsewhere in her rant last week, O’Donnell weighed in on the since-silenced discourse surrounding Trump’s health and mortality.
“Whether physically, emotionally, spiritually — or all of them wrapped up into one — he’s not doing well. He wants to get into heaven. I find that comical,” she said.
O’Donnell has been living in the Dublin suburb of Howth, in Ireland, with her 12-year-old child since January, having originally moved there following Trump’s election win over Kamala Harris.
In March, O’Donnell revealed she and her child, who is non-binary and autistic, were in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship following their trans-Atlantic move.
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