Disgraced comedian Kathy Griffin is trying to make a comeback, after she posed holding the bloody, severed head of our president in a magazine spread, earned her criticism from both the left and right back in May. A few days later Griffin offered a teary apology, that was part remorse, part pity-party and she was quickly shuffled out of the media spotlight. Now Griffin is hoping to capitalize on the scandal she caused, basing a large part of her comedy tour off the incident.
Monday and Tuesday Griffin made the rounds on Australian talk shows to promote the tour and completely backtrack from her clearly insincere apology.
On the Channel 10 Program The Project Monday, Griffin flippantly laughed off the media’s response to the photo as “complete BS” saying she was “excited” to tell her story around the world about “Nazi” Trump:
PETER HELLIAR, HOST: How long after the Trump controversy, did the comedienne part of your brain think, ‘I think there might be a show in this’?”
KATHY GRIFFIN: Two days. So there was a firestorm, I apologized, and then looking at all the behavior on the behalf of ‘the Cheeto’, I call him the accidental president, because he’s not supposed to be the president, it was an accident, he lost by a very large margin, and now we’re screwed. So in light of all the things that have happened pre, but especially since the photo, I realized that the outrage about my little photo was complete BS, and you know, whats happening to me is actually something I’m excited to take and tell around the world. I’m looking forward to exposing all the details about the story and the investigation, and that the idea that we have this insane, possibly Nazi, I’m going to go with Nazi-esque president in the White House, I mean there’s not two sides to Nazis let me just clear that up, and he’s going to come for me using taxpayer dollars, because I shamed him, ‘Oh he was shamed by a girl!’ [makes crying motion] Look I think I need to take him down globally, one joke at a time.
While The Project’s host let Griffin rant, without any pushback, Griffin didn’t get that easy of a time on Australia’s Channel 7 morning program Sunrise. Griffin even became angry at one of the female host’s questions, calling her “full of crap."
Hosts Sam Armytage and David Koch led Griffin in by calling her “controversial” but also touted her awards and “legendary” jokes.
Once Griffin appeared, she immediately mocked the show for pixelating the photos of the fake, bloody Donald Trump head. “I just want to say, it was a Trump mask with ketchup. I think the Australians can handle that fact,” she snarked.
Afterwards she explained her reasoning for the tour, with plenty of derision towards Trump along the way:
It was such a monumental thing. Remember, its historic that I would be under a two month federal investigation, I mean keep in mind, this is ‘the fool’-I don’t even want to call him the president--I just call him ‘the fool’ or ‘the moron’ or ‘the Cheeto’ or something--but anyway, this is the guy who while we’re having a disastrous Hurricane Harvey, and people are dying in Houston, and all over Texas, maybe Louisiana, he’s spending taxpayer dollars on the Kathy Griffin, two month federal investigation. So you know, I’m off the no-fly list and I can’t wait to fly and come see you and tell the whole story, because it got so crazy, that after a while, it actually turned funny. So the picture happened, the outrage was ridiculous, I made an apology, and now in light of all the crazy stuff that he and this administration are doing….he’s unhinged...and I wanted to shame him.
Griffin ended her rant, saying the bloody head picture was a response to Trump’s response to Megyn Kelly during one of the early presidential debates, about “blood coming out of her wherever.” “I thought, let’s take a picture of him with blood coming out of his wherever,” she smirked.
The two hosts didn’t look amused by Griffin’s antics, and host David Koch asked Griffin point-blank, “Are you no longer sorry for it?”
Griffin didn’t hold back:
Correct. I’m no longer sorry. The whole outrage was BS. The whole thing got so blown out of proportion. And I lost everybody. Like I had Chelsea Clinton tweeting against me. I had friends. Debra Messing from Will and Grace tweeting against me. I mean, I lost everybody. And so I’ve been through the mill, and I also, you know, I didn’t just lose one night on CNN, my entire tour was cancelled within 24 hours because every single theater got all these death threats. I mean, these Trump fans they’re hardcore, they have like robocalls, and they’re a minority but they know how to act like a majority.
As Griffin started to attack Trump supporters, host Sam Armytage tried to push back against Griffin’s excuses:
ARMYTAGE: Debra Messing and Chelsea Clinton aren’t Trump fans. Even Democrats said it was out of line. I get that comedy’s about pushing the boundaries and being politically incorrect and that’s fine. But do you not agree that that picture, holding up a severed head, I know its a mask covered in tomato sauce, but do you not accept that was a little bit over the line?
GRIFFIN: No, you’re full of crap. Stop this. You know this. Stop acting like my little picture is more important than talking about the actual atrocities that the president of the United States is committing!
Griffin continued "I’m also on a mission to tell people, honestly, if it happened to me, as big mouthed and obnoxious as I am, it can happen to you,” she warned.
“I’ve been talking to Australians who for the first time, are saying they’re afraid to go to America. I never thought I’d hear that in my lifetime,” she lamented.
The comedian also complained about the “sexism and misogyny” she’s faced over the photo scandal and reiterated:
No, I don’t apologize for that photo any more. I think the outrage is complete BS because we have real things to deal with.
Just two days ago, Griffin hinted that she was already ready to backtrack from her fake apology. To Yashar Ali of The Cut, Griffin said she was “done” apologizing for the scandal, rehashing her concerns about her freedom for“artistic expression,” falsely equating free speech with her threat of violence against the President:
“What about any American citizen, whether they’re artists or not, who innocently post a shocking photo on social media -- will they face a federal investigation?” she asked Ali.
A few months ago after Griffin made her teary apology, the media largely let her off the hook and stopped talking about the scandal. Given the fact that the news is rightly consumed by Hurricane Harvey coverage, this shocking retraction will probably not get covered.
