‘SNL’ writer Katie Rich apologizes for tweet on Barron Trump

UPDATED Jan. 23, 2:30 P.M.

“SNL” writer Katie Rich tweeted an apology via her Twitter account Monday afternoon, apologizing for her Barron Trump tweet. She has also been suspended indefinitely from “SNL” according to a source familiar to the situation.

A Chicago writer on “Saturday Night Live” was absent from the show’s credits on this weekend’s episode, a day after her Twitter joke about Donald Trump’s 10-year-old son stirred outrage on social media.

Katie Rich had tweeted on Friday, the date of Trump’s presidential inauguration, that 10-year-old Barron Trump “will be this country’s first homeschool shooter.” The joke was not used on “SNL” or any of its social media outlets.

The tweet later disappeared but lived on in screenshots:

Rich, a Weekend Update writer, had been a regular presence in the “SNL” credits until this weekend. NBC has not commented on her status with the show, and Rich could not be reached for comment. As of Monday, her Twitter account was locked down as private.

But in other corners of the Internet, from the rest of Twitter to NBC’s Facebook page to a petition with more than 30,000 signatures demanding her termination, Rich was the target of full-on social media wrath as commenters tore into her for making a punchline of a preteen.

Rich grew up near 80th and Pulaski and continued to reside in Chicago during her “SNL” tenure, living in temporary New York quarters during show weeks. A staff writer since December 2013 and a lifelong Cubs fan, she was one of the on-air backup singers when the team’s Dexter Fowler, David Ross and Anthony Rizzo celebrated their World Series victory by singing “Go Cubs Go” with Bill Murray on “SNL” in November.

Before joining “SNL,” she was an actor who improvised at iO and was in the casts that wrote and performed three Second City mainstage shows.

Matters of taste aside, the tweet’s assumption that Barron Trump is home schooled was erroneous: He attends Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York.