Kathy Griffin Calls Out Donald Trump's 'Abuse of Power' One Year After Photo Controversy
Kathy Griffin took to Twitter to deliver a tweetstorm against Donald Trump, his power, and the backlash that surrounded her photo controversy one year after the incident.
The comedian took to Twitter to explain everything that happened from the moment the photo of her seemingly beheading the President was released to what happened in the days and months afterwards.
She also explained the threats she received due to the photo shoot and what the President tweeted about her.
Click inside to read all the tweets Kathy Griffin sent out about the photo controversy on the one year anniversary…
A) One year ago today my Trump photo was released. I have planned on doing this thread for a while but the fact that Sarah Sanders brought my name up at the podium today makes it even more appropriate for me to share some thoughts on what happened.
Hope you'll take a look…. pic.twitter.com/kORS1RgfVz
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
B) I am in a position of tremendous privilege. I have access to resources that allowed me to deal with this in a way others who aren't as privileged couldn't have. And that's exactly why I'm speaking out, I don't want this to happen to someone who doesn't have my resources.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
D) So the mask photo was meant to be a play on those sexist comments about Megyn.."blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.." FYI, I am no Megyn Kelly fan, she has made horrible racist remarks, but there's no doubt Trump's comments about her were sexist
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
F) Did I know the photo would cause controversy? Of course..but I thought it would be a one or two day thing. My point was to do something provocative in an attempt to keep the spotlight shining on his sexism. In my mind that's the role that comics are supposed to play…
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
H) Trump's sexism during the campaign and before he ran for office were no secret, but by May last year I was nervous that all of the Russia stuff and the chaos Trump was causing was taking the focus off what his misogyny. I felt it was important to make a big bold statement
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
J) Allowed the message I was pushing for to get totally co-opted. The second thing I would have done was handle the release differently. The photographer asked me when he should put it out and I told him to do it when he felt best. Not releasing the image with context
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
K) And the fact that it ended up on TMZ totally allowed for my intended messaging to get lost in the mix. I was honestly hoping for something along the lines of this Der Spiegel cover…I never intended the photo to end up on a gossip site first. pic.twitter.com/P0pxL5ejme
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
M) First thing Rosie said to me was "what if Daniel Pearl's mother sees this?" Call me naive, but I had not thought of that connection. Rosie told me I should delete the photo/video and apologize. For the first time in my career as a comic, that's what I did.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
O) As I said earlier in this thread, I'm in a position of privilege and I take responsibility for what I do and say. But I'm a comic…my job is to push the line. @JimCarrey explained it best two days after my Trump photo came out. pic.twitter.com/2xTSzbX5Z7
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
Q) I learned that day the power of the presidency and the power of the Trump machine. Immediately the death threats started pouring in again but more violent and serious than the previous night. The news networks broke into their programming to put his tweet up.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
S) People will say to me "well you started it, he was just responding.." Ok…I was a comic/citizen responding to the President. I was punching up…he decided to punch down and use his following to go after me. Was that appropriate use of presidential power? I don't think so.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
U) I have the first amendment right to put out these images. People may not come to my shows, they may not buy my books, but I have the right. It was just plain wrong for the President of the United States to use his power to come after me or anyone else he is offended by.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
W) By this point with POTUS and FLOTUS weighing in the death threats were coming in at a rate we couldn't keep up with. The FBI told me that there were real credible threats against my life. I had to hire security, people were calling my poor 97-year-old mom threatening her.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
Y) Venues started to cancel my shows. I don't blame them, they were getting bomb threats and threats from donors about pulling funding. I bring this up though to point out a key fact…my shows weren't cancelled because ticket holders..my fans..wanted their money back.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
Z) The shows were cancelled because the President of the United States and his family were offended by an image I released and decided to unleash an army on me. That's what's not right..that's what I object to. I'm an adult, I can deal with fallout..I've dealt with it before..
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
AA) But no one should use their power to do this to another citizen, in particular no President should do this. As my shows were getting cancelled, the president's second favorite website TMZ started to post my show cancellations live. https://t.co/0X91KNPXAA
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
CC) I could sell a lot more tour tickets if I just stopped talking about all of this and focused on telling jokes about the Kardashians. But I feel a responsibility to keep talking about this abuse of power because one day it's not going to be a famous comic that deals with this
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
DD) It's going to be your daughter or son, your sister or brother, who says something that the president, his family, and their administration find offensive and will have their lives ruined.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
EE) Then, Don Jr made this statement to Good Morning America. I remember when he did because its when everything got worse. A key line in bold below explains why…remember I was getting death threats, tons of fallout and he gave permission to his dad's followers to keep going. pic.twitter.com/Mu7Zcn21JK
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
GG) Lisa wanted to do a press conference the next day. Every single one of my friends was against this. I was hearing from so many people that told me not to do it. By then it had been scheduled and I thought if I cancelled it, it would make things worse. I was wrong.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
II) People have assumed that for the past year I've been sitting in a state of brokenness. I haven't. I've been working my ass off, doing a lot of writing, pitching, I did my world tour and now i'm in Canada before coming back to the US for my stateside tour.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
KK) That wasn't the case, it wasn't a quick call to smack my hand. They kept the investigation open for two months. Remember in all this I'm no stranger. I'm a famous comic. No rational person can think that I pose a serious threat to the president. I would have understood a call
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
MM) And they were surprised to learn how long the investigation was open and what they made me go through because while I have what they call "the means and opportunity.." I didn't have the intent. No rational person thought I did. They thought my photo was offensive not serious.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
OO) Male celebrities who had made statements or put out images that were considered offensive by the Trump crew didn't face any impact. Johnny Depp, Snoop Dogg…they went right back to work. I can't see anything but sexism in that.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
QQ) And made to go through a second layer of vetting that no one else was. Again, the power of a presidency put into action. The words of the president and the platform he has hold significant weight.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
SS) I setup a few dates, including Carnegie Hall which sold out in a day, and was so touched and moved by the reaction from my fans. https://t.co/8XIY10ulNr
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
UU) I've won two Emmys and a Grammy. I have a supportive and amazing fan base but there is a cloud over everything because of Trump's actions. And that's why I'll keep returning to my main point…we can't let this happen again. We just can't.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
WW) Many people didn't know what I was going through in the past year, they assumed I was off enjoying myself and taking time off or that I was broken. They didn't realize the abuse of power stuff fully until I started talking about it. My wonderful friend @DebraMessing told me
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
XX) That she didn't realize until she read this article in @NYMag what happened. My point is we need to keep track of when Trump goes after people. Don't just react at the moment, make sure people are ok days, months later. https://t.co/xbgOQm2yk1
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
ZZ) The only way to deal with a presidency that abuses power and is authoritarian in nature is to make sure that we back up those that the administration has tried to knock down. It's exhausting but so important if we have any hope of preserving our democracy. Thank you. xoxo KG
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
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