The Comedian Who Cried Trump

• Crisis
• June 6, 2017
• by Merrie Spaeth

“He broke me,” sobbed so-called comedian Kathy Griffin reacting to the virtually universal condemnation of her stunt of holding up a severed bloodied (plastic) head of President Donald Trump. In the resulting outcry, CNN announced Griffin would not be hosting their 2017 New Year’s Eve Comedy Special. Other comedy shows cancelled her participation as well. She also revealed that the Secret Service had contacted her and charged they were “trying to ruin my rights forever.” At the press conference, Griffin's lawyer Lisa Bloom insisted Griffin had the right to make fun of the president.

Several lessons: First, Griffin did this to herself. Second, progressives were quick to condemn Montana Congressional candidate Greg Gianforte for slamming a reporter from The Guardian to the ground and insisted that his actions and tone incited others to violence. What did Griffin’s actions do? The images of the bloody head were picked up by hundreds of media outlets and tens of thousands of individual tweets and social media posts. This crosses the line beyond making fun of the president.

Finally, she was the one who publicized that the Secret Service had contacted her. The mission of the Service is to protect the life of the president. They would be delinquent if they hadn’t tried to interview her to get a first person view of her intentions.

Notice that instead of her apology, the headlines all contained the inflammatory “broke me” quote. And about that apology: a classic example of not being sorry for what she did but being incredibly sorry that she got caught.