Griffin fired from New Year’s gig over Trump photo
For a little while, it looked as if Kathy Griffin was getting exactly what she wanted.
On Tuesday afternoon, an image appeared online of the actress posing with a mask styled to look like the decapitated, bloody head of President Donald Trump. It was inevitable that the violent image, taken by the photographer Tyler Shields, would get a reaction.
It did. By Wednesday afternoon, Griffin had been condemned by the president and fired as cohost of CNN’s New Year’s Eve program.
“CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year’s Eve program,” the network tweeted. A spokeswoman said that there would be no additional comment.
The image of Griffin had provoked howls of outrage from Trump’s supporters and critics alike when it first appeared on Tuesday. Melania Trump, the first lady, said the image was “simply wrong.” Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, called it “disgusting but not surprising”; Chelsea Clinton said it was “vile and wrong.”
Within hours, Griffin posted a video apology to Twitter. “I went way too far,” she said.
Her apology did little to appease Trump, who slammed the actress in a tweet Wednesday morning, saying Griffin should be ‘‘ashamed of herself.’’
Meanwhile, on Tuesday night, he found himself the subject of the popular Twitter imagination when he tweeted “Despite the constant negative press covfefe”.
With that, Trump’s Twitter feed went silent for 5 hours.
Was it the start of a rant against “negative press coverage” that went awry? No one will say.
At 6:09 a.m., Trump’s Twitter feed came alive again with: “Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’??? Enjoy!”
And on Wednesday afternoon, press secretary Sean Spicer, when asked about the puzzling tweet, said only that “I think the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.”