Weeks before a New York City theater “assassinated” President Trump onstage, causing public outrage, comedian Kathy Griffin found herself at the center of an even more polarizing controversy. She was involved in a photoshoot, showing her holding up the bloody, decapitated head of the president, which Trump himself called “sick,” noting that it repulsed his family and 11-year-old son, Barron.
Roundly criticized for the stunt, Griffin was at first unrepentant, but then was forced to issue an apology, tweeting that she was “sorry,” “went too far,” and was “wrong.”
CNN ended up firing her anyway. Even the Secret Service got involved, opening an investigation on the comedian.
But after the apology was made, Griffin double down, going back on the offensive, staging a tearful press conference and claiming that she’d been receiving death threats and that the hoopla surrounding the photoshoot had been because of her gender. In short, she was the victim, not the president.
She remains undeterred. In a recent interview with New York magazine‘s The Cut, Griffin said, “President Trump just pardoned Joe Arpaio, who was essentially running a concentration camp in the Arizona desert….He said there are some good Nazis, and he’s kicking out young adults who were brought here as kids by their parents, and I’m the one who has to continue to apologize?”
And she’s not going to excise the political from her act just because of the backlash. “Comedians talk about what their audience is faced with everyday, we try to relate to our audience,” she told New York. “I’m obsessed with politics. I always have been, and now, with Trump, many people are obsessed with politics, so that’s going to be a big part of my act.” She drove that sentiment home by saying, “I would be abandoning my principles as a comic and a human being if I backed off President Trump or any public person….Comics by their nature are anti-Establishment. They are charged with the often unenviable task of going after people in power. I will never abdicate that responsibility.”
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