Rosie O’Donnell has walked back her claim that the Minnesota school shooter who killed two children Wednesday was a MAGA Republican, saying, “when you mess up, you fess up.”
The comedian and former talk show host, who fled the U.S. for Ireland following Donald Trump’s re-election, posted a TikTok video Thursday branding the shooter, 23-year-old Robin Westman, a “MAGA person.”
“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 America were shooting each other in schools,” she said in the video, which she has since deleted.
“This was a church inside a Catholic school. And what do you know? It was a white guy, Republican, MAGA person, what do you know? White supremacist.”
Westman, who is reported to have been born male but identified as a woman, expressed hatred toward multiple groups in writings and videos posted online before opening fire on children in the pews of a Minneapolis Catholic school on Wednesday. In one video, a magazine had the words, “kill Donald Trump” scrawled on it.
Westman’ writings include disparaging messages about Trump, Christians, Black people, Hispanic people, Jews and Israel, according to The New York Times. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told ABC News that Westman “clearly had a deranged obsession with previous mass shooters.”
![Parents await news during an active shooter situation at the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, Minn., on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2025.] (Photo by RICHARD TSONG-TAATARII/The Star Tribune via Getty Images)](https://dnyuz.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/‘Rosie-ODonnell-Apologizes-to-MAGA-After-Minnesota-School-Shooter-Claim.jpg)
After O’Donnell’s initial video sparked backlash, she took to Instagram on Saturday, writing, “i apologize for laziness at not looking throughly at the facts of this shooter – she was anti trump and not maga.”
On Sunday, she posted a second apology on TikTok, saying, “I know a lot of you were very upset about the video I made before I went away for a few days. You are right and I did not do my due diligence before I made that emotional statement.”
She continued, “I said things about the shooter that were incorrect. I assumed, like most shooters, they followed a standard MO and had standard feelings of, of, you know, NRA-loving kind of gun people.”
my apologies to maga for saying the school shooter was one of u – that is incorrect- i made a mistake – i didn’t research- im sorry- i assumed and thats always wrong – #uniteamerica #RonlyHOPE
“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, 63, addressed the MAGA base directly in the caption: “my apologies to maga for saying the school shooter was one of u – that is incorrect- i made a mistake – i didn’t research- im sorry- i assumed and thats always wrong.”
But it appears her apology was poorly received, as comments flooded in questioning her sincerity, several of which O’Donnell replied to.
“She does not mean this apology,” one TikTok user wrote. “She is trying to save face, because she opened her mouth and was so wrong.”
O’Donnell responded, “i was wrong – and i apologize- what more do u want?”
Westman killed 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski, and injured 18 others. Westman died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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