The chips have already begun to fall where they will with respect to the disgraceful photo self-styled comedian Kathy Griffin staged this past week, in which she held up a 3D likeness of Donald Trump’s severed head dripping blood. Among the fallout was a decision by CNN to cut ties with Griffin, who for several years has co-hosted the network’s New Year’s Eve celebration, and reports that the Secret Service is now investigating her.
In response to the outrage her stunt generated, she publicly apologized via a YouTube video in which, presumably to demonstrate the full measure of her sincerity, she appeared without makeup. My question is when she will issue an apology for the nightmares this first video has created.
https://youtu.be/FEpkZ3krTFY
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
While some in the entertainment industry have aligned themselves with Griffin and even encouraged her to go further with her attacks on the president, she has already taken her blind rage against the Trump family as far as I believe she can, short of actually making an attempt on the president’s life.
I am referring specifically to an interview she gave to Vulture in December 2016 in which she was asked, “What should comedy look like during the Trump presidency?” Here is her answer:
Now more than ever we must absolutely go for all the absurdities. For me, that’s Trump and all things Trump. It’s not about trying to be an equal-opportunity offender anymore because Hillary got such a beat down. It’s his turn. So I’m happy to deliver beat down to Donald Trump….
Then she upped the ante, adding:
… and also to Barron. You know a lot of comics are going to go hard for Donald, my edge is that I’ll go direct for Barron. I’m going to get in ahead of the game.
According to a report by TMZ, Griffin succeeded in “getting” Barron, who is 11 years old:
Barron Trump was watching television Tuesday at home with Melania when Kathy Griffin‘s photo appeared on the screen, and his initial reaction was that something terrible happened to his father.
Trump family sources tell us Barron was in front of the TV watching a show when the news came on and he saw the bloody, beheaded image. We’re told he panicked and screamed, “Mommy, Mommy!”
As it was put to us, “He’s 11. He doesn’t know who Kathy Griffin is and the head she was holding resembled his dad.”
Putting aside the issue that president’s families have been historically off limits as media topics (and targets) Griffin sang a very different tune when Trump’s predecessor was in office. Here is a video of her reacting to criticism of Barack Obama. The transcript follows:
And of course ‘lizabeth — I can’t even get the name out — Hasselback [sic] said something really stupid. Let’s take a look.
[Cut to video within a video of Elizabeth Hasselbeck of “The View” asking Barack Obama in 2012 how he “would move things forward any more than Mitt Romney.”]
Freeze! All right, I shouldn’t be freezing here, but right away, with her attitude to the president, who is a Harvard law professor [sic], I’m like, “Take it down a notch, bitch!”
[Laughter and applause.]
I don’t like that. I don’t like Jan Brewer in Arizona going like this to the president [waggling her finger] on the tarmac. I don’t like that. I was on “The View.” Barbara Walters said, “You respect the office…”. [Emphasis added]
I defy anyone to come up with a more fitting epitaph for Kathy Griffin.
