US comedian Kathy Griffin holding up a prop depicting Donald Trump's bloodied, severed head. TMZ Photo
US comedian Kathy Griffin may have hoped to make
art in holding up a prop depicting Donald Trump's bloodied, severed
head. But the stunt cost her a job with CNN and achieved the unthinkable
uniting conservatives and liberals in outrage.
The
president castigated the comedian on Wednesday, saying she "should be
ashamed of herself" for the grisly-looking photograph.
"My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!" he tweeted.
It
didn't matter that the outspoken Trump critic and award-winning
performer had already apologized and asked celebrity photographer Tyler
Shields to remove the picture from the internet. It was not enough to
save her job.
"CNN has terminated our agreement with
Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year's Eve program," the network's
communications division announced.
CNN had earlier
called the picture "disgusting and offensive, "and said it was
"evaluating" its annual New Year's Eve coverage, which Griffin co-hosted
for a decade with Anderson Cooper. The CNN anchor slammed the image as
"completely inappropriate."
First Lady Melania Trump also criticized Griffin, who has twice won Emmys for her reality show "My Life on the D List."
"As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing," she said in a rare statement.
"When
you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a
photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about
the mental health of the person who did it," she added.
The
Secret Service also said it would look into the incident, tweeting that
threats against protectees "receive the highest priority of all of our
investigations."
In a 31-second video posted to social
media late Tuesday, Griffin said: "I beg for your forgiveness. I went
too far. I made a mistake and I was wrong."
But the 56-year-old was initially more defiant.
"There
was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his... wherever,"
she captioned the photograph Tuesday in reference to a remark Trump
made on the campaign trail about US journalist Megyn Kelly, who
moderated a presidential debate.
- 'Repugnant and vile' -
"I
do not condone any violence... I'm merely mocking the mocker in chief,"
Griffin tweeted later. Both messages have since been deleted and the
photograph has been removed from her social media account.
Trump's
eldest son Donald Jr, who runs the family business in New York, and
Mitt Romney, the defeated 2012 Republican presidential nominee, were
among those conservatives who slammed the photograph.
"Our
politics have become too base, too low & too vulgar, but Kathy
Griffin's post descends into an even more repugnant & vile
territory," Romney tweeted.
Even Trump critics vented their disapproval.
"It
is never funny to joke about killing a president," tweeted Chelsea
Clinton, the daughter of former president Bill and Trump's election
rival Hillary.
"I think she was thinking she was making
some artistic statement, but that image has no place in our political
dialogue," Al Franken, a Democratic senator from Minnesota and a former
comedian on long-running television show Saturday Night Live, told
MSNBC.
Apart from CNN, Squatty Potty, a Utah-based
bathroom products company, suspended an advertising campaign featuring
Griffin, calling the picture "deeply inappropriate."
Shields
has not commented publicly since the controversy broke. He is listed on
his website as an artist and "Hollywood's favourite photographer" who
has evolved from being the "bad boy of photography."
US newspapers were scathing on the editorial pages.
"In
a strange way Griffin's shameful stunt might have given Americans their
greatest moment of unity since Trump's unexpected election," wrote USA
Today.
"Those who hate Trump with all their gut, and
recoil at the crass and nasty direction he's taken our politics, should
be the first to condemn imagery that normalizes vi
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