Why Chelsea Clinton And Roseanne Barr Once Feuded On Twitter

Sitcom actress Roseanne Barr and Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former president Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, don't readily appear in the same social circles. But for one brief moment on Twitter, the two shared a public conversation that ranged from confusing to cringey with a touch of condescending politeness. 

Barr started the online exchange in a since-deleted tweet that claimed Clinton was married to democratic billionaire George Soros' nephew. Clinton calmly replied that she wasn't — though she did express her gratitude for the grant-making network Open Society, which Soros founded. In return, Barr dished back more falsehoods about Clinton's family and threw in a Holocaust conspiracy theory for good measure, per The Washington Post. 

Although one could argue the short-lived feud was one of the more tame problematic things that Barr has ever done, Clinton and Barr's Twitter feud was certainly surprising.

Chelsea Clinton is no stranger to responding to online attacks and misinformation with biting kindness. After Roseanne Barr accused her of being married to Soros' nephew, she responded with near-condescendingly patient politeness: "Good morning Roseanne — my given middle name is Victoria. I imagine George Soros's nephews are lovely people. I'm just not married to one." Clinton then gave kudos to Open Society's work, ending her tweet with, "Have a great day!" 

The Washington Post reported that Barr later corrected herself, clarifying that Clinton was not married to Soros but to a son of a "corrupt senator," though the tweet seems to have been deleted. And while Clinton's father-in-law, Ed Mezvinsky, did plead guilty to fraud charges and served 80 months in federal prison starting in 2003, he was a member of the House, not the Senate.

One tweet from Barr that did survive her post-and-delete cycle was perhaps the most ludicrous, stating, "Sorry to have tweeted incorrect info about you! Please forgive me! By the way, George Soros is a nazi who turned 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?"

It doesn't appear that Chelsea Clinton responded to Roseanne Barr's final retort of the feud, though the writer and mother of three isn't averse to speaking her mind on the app when necessary. Clinton's Twitter exchange concerning Barron Trump briefly united Donald Trump Jr. and Clinton in 2018, and she didn't mince words following President Joe Biden's inauguration with a tweet that revealed the Biden family member missing from the ceremony. 

Barr has also had a long history on the social media platform, though her track record has proven to be far more tumultuous. It's admittedly difficult to keep all of Roseanne Barr's controversies straight, but perhaps one of her more infamous was her now-deleted tweet that made racist and derogatory remarks against a former senior aide to the Obama administration Valerie Jarrett. 

A subsequent apology by Barr fell flat, causing the actress' "Roseanne" reboot to be dropped by ABC and a dissolution of her relationship with her talent agency, ICM Partners. Barr continues to share right-leaning conspiracies on her Twitter profile, which has one million followers.