CNN cuts ties with Kathy Griffin for gruesome Trump video
Posted May 31, 2017 02:13:37 PM.
Last Updated May 31, 2017 02:14:13 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CNN has cut ties with Kathy Griffin after she appeared in a video holding a likeness of U.S. President Donald Trump’s severed head.
Griffin said she went way too far when she appeared in the brief video Tuesday.
The comic apologized later for the video image, saying it was “too disturbing” and wasn’t funny.
“I sincerely apologize,” she said in a second video. “I went way too far. The image is too disturbing. I understand how it offends people.”
The first video showed a straight-faced Griffin slowly lifting the bloody head. She originally described the project with photographer Tyler Shields as an “artsy fartsy statement” mocking the commander in chief.
Many online called for Griffin to be jailed.
In her apology video, Griffin begs her fans for forgiveness and says she has asked the photographer to remove the images.
“I made a mistake, and I was wrong,” she says.
The president however wasn’t sympathetic, tweeting on Tuesday morning that Griffin should be ashamed of herself.
The video had apparently been removed from Shields’ blog by late Tuesday.
CNN, whose New Year’s Eve coverage Griffin has co-hosted, called the images “disgusting and offensive.”
Squatty Potty, a Utah-based bathroom products company, said in a statement Tuesday that it has suspended an ad campaign featuring Griffin.
A publicist for Shields did not respond to a request for comment.
