President Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity at the White House on Thursday for an interview in which he finally addressed the controversial tweet about his son, Barron, made by “Saturday Night Live” writer Katie Rich.
“It’s a disgrace,” the president said during the interview, which will air on the host’s Fox News show “Hannity” at 10 p.m.
“He’s a great boy,” Trump said of his 10-year-old son. “And it’s not an easy thing for him. Believe me.”
Trump also repeated criticisms he’s made of the NBC sketch show in the past, saying, “it’s a failing show, it’s not funny, Alec Baldwin’s a disaster.”
Rich was suspended indefinitely from the show on Monday after tweeting an offensive remark about Barron Trump over the weekend. The writer posted — then deleted — a tweet on Friday in which she joked that Donald Trump’s youngest son could become the country’s first “homeschool shooter.”
Rich later issued an apology for the joke via Twitter: “I sincerely apologize for the insensitive tweet. I deeply regret my actions & offensive words. It was inexcusable & I’m so sorry.”
Last year, First Lady Melania Trump, threatened a lawsuit over a video posted to YouTube, which suggested that Barron was autistic. The following day, the man who posted the video to YouTube, James Hunter, pulled it and issued an apology, calling it “false, defamatory and malicious.”
“In the video, I suggested Barron Trump might suffer from autism. That is in fact 100 percent false,” Hunter said. “It was incredibly irresponsible of me to diagnose Barron Trump using a selection of misleading videos.”