Kathy Griffin 'should be ashamed' of severed head stunt, Trump says
Donald Trump has said Kathy Griffin “should be ashamed of herself” for appearing in a video holding what looked like Trump’s bloody, severed head.
In a post on Twitter on Wednesday morning, the president said: “My children, especially my 11-year-old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”
His wife Melania also spoke out against the image. “As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing,” the first lady said, according to NBC News. “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.”
Griffin has apologized, saying that the brief video was “too disturbing” and wasn’t funny. “I went too far,” she says in a second video. “I sincerely apologize.”
Griffin had posed for the shot during a photo session with photographer Tyler Shield. Many people online called for Griffin to be jailed.
The first video showed a straight-faced Griffin slowly lifting the bloody head. She originally described the project with Shields as an “artsy-fartsy statement” mocking the president.
CNN, whose New Year’s Eve coverage Griffin has co-hosted, called the images “disgusting and offensive” and cut ties with the comedian.