Ever since Kathy Griffin shared that infamous photo of herself holding a fake, bloodied Donald Trump head, her career has been in crisis management mode.
Despite her apology and an emotional press conference, the controversy led her to lose money, jobs, fans and even close friends ― among them Anderson Cooper.
In a new interview with The Cut, Griffin opened up about the immense backlash she faced after her gory photo went viral. Cooper, with whom she hosted CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast, was among the many stars who publicly denounced the photo.
“For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate,” the CNN anchor tweeted.
Griffin understood her former colleague was in a tough position, however, as she told The Cut, she felt she at least deserved a text or phone call before he shared that tweet with his millions of followers.
To make matters worse, Cooper told Andy Cohen during an episode of “Watch What Happens Live” that he and Griffin were still friends, yet she says he still hadn’t reached out to the comedian to talk about her photo or his tweet. His comments hurt Griffin, who ended the friendship herself after Cooper finally reached out to her via text, months after the controversy unfolded.
Still, Griffin remains angry at Trump, and by the sounds of it, she’s done apologizing.
“Why are people still expecting me to apologize and grovel to a man that tweets like this?” Griffin said. “I’m a comedian; he’s our fucking president.”
“President Trump just pardoned Joe Arpaio, who was essentially running a concentration camp in the Arizona desert,” she told the outlet. “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?”
Throughout the controversy, however, Griffin received support from stars like Jim Carrey, who said it’s her job as a comedian to “cross the line at all times.” Jamie Foxx also stuck up for her, telling Entertainment Tonight, “Listen, as comedians, sometimes you do go beyond, past the line. I still love Kathy Griffin. She went past the line, she’ll pay for it in the way she pays for it, and we’ll go out and we’ll laugh with her again.”
And laugh is exactly what Griffin plans to make people do. The comedian is headed on her Laugh Your Head Off tour in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. And yes, there will be Trump jokes.
To read her full interview, head over to The Cut.
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