CNN has cut ties with comedian and reality TV star Kathy Griffin after a video depicting her holding President Donald Trump’s severed head spread on the internet.
“CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year’s Eve program,” the network said in a statement on Wednesday (May 31). Griffin co-hosted the New Year’s broadcast for 10 years alongside CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.
President Donald Trump said Griffin “should be ashamed of herself” for appearing in the video. Trump tweeted Wednesday morning: “My children, especially my 11-year-old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”
Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017
For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate.
— Anderson Cooper (@andersoncooper) May 31, 2017
This is vile and wrong. It is never funny to joke about killing a president. https://t.co/zIiuKoMyFw
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) May 30, 2017
Our politics have become too base, too low, & too vulgar, but Kathy Griffin’s post descends into an even more repugnant & vile territory.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) May 30, 2017
First lady Melania Trump issued a statement of her own: “As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing. 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, conceding that the brief video, which she originally described as an “artsy-fartsy statement” mocking the commander in chief, was “too disturbing” and wasn’t funny. “I went too far,” she says in her contrite follow-up video to the original shot by celebrity photographer Tyler Shields. “I sincerely apologize.”
I am sorry. I went too far. I was wrong. pic.twitter.com/LBKvqf9xFB
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 30, 2017