Fact Check

Did Sarah Sanders Offer Roseanne Barr a White House Job?

A widely shared Facebook post from the press secretary appeared to offer an official White House position to the controversial comedian.

Published May 30, 2018

 (Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com)
Image courtesy of Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com
Claim:
Trump's press secretary Sarah Sanders offered Roseanne Barr a White House position.

On 30 May 2018, the day after ABC had announced the cancellation of the rebooted Roseanne series in the wake of controversial tweets from star Roseanne Barr, social media users widely shared a Facebook post seemingly issued by White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders that offered the comedian a position in the White House:

However, the Facebook account that issued the post bore a generic title for a name (@USAPressSecretary), had no Facebook verification indicator, and was apparently first put into use just a few days after the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner (at which comedian Michelle Wolf generated controversy of her own over her remarks about Sanders) — all of which pointed to a counterfeit account:

The @USAPressSecretary page's "About" section states:

My official page was hacked on April 30th, so I've created this personal page for the time being, but we found no evidence that Sarah Huckabee Sanders was using a different Facebook account prior to that time which was suddenly "hacked."

Shortly after we made inquiries of the White House press office and Facebook to confirm the status of the @USAPressSecretary) account, it was apparently deactivated.