‘SNL’ Writer Katie Rich Suspended Indefinitely for Barron Trump Tweet

Move follows immediate public outcry over “homeschool shooter” comment

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“Saturday Night Live” on Monday suspended writer Katie Rich following a tweet she sent last week disparaging Barron Trump, TheWrap has learned.

An individual familiar with the situation told TheWrap that Rich was suspended immediately after she posted — then deleted — a tweet on Friday in which she joked that  Donald Trump’s 10-year-old son could become the country’s first “homeschool shooter.” The suspension is indefinite.

Rich issued an apology via her Twitter account, which reads: “I sincerely apologize for the insensitive tweet. I deeply regret my actions & offensive words. It was inexcusable & I’m so sorry.”

NBC declined TheWrap’s request for comment.

People immediately began bashing Rich for the joke, with a Change.org petition calling for her to be fired reaching almost 80,000 signatures at the time of this publishing.

People have been quick to defend the youngest child of President Trump after he was the subject of some harsh online commentary.

“Barron Trump deserves the chance every child does — to be a kid,” former first daughter Chelsea Clinton wrote on Facebook Sunday. “Standing up for every kid also means opposing POTUS policies that hurt kids.”

Last year, Rosie O’Donnell came under fire when she retweeted a video suggesting that Barron was autistic. She later apologized to his mother ,Melania Trump, writing, “I was insensitive in my RT – i am sorry for the pain i caused – it was not my intent – i am truly sorry (sic).”

The video itself sparked the threat of a lawsuit from Melania. The following day, the man who posted the video to YouTube, James Hunter, pulled the video from YouTube and issued an apology, calling the video “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.”

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