Kathy Griffin has unleashed a major tweetstorm, one year after the release of her controversial Donald Trump photo, calling out the U.S. President’s “abuse of power”. The comic has also revealed that she has been “writing and pitching” as she hopes to have a “regular presence on TV again”, after becoming “kryptonite” to the entertainment industry.
Griffin posted more than 50 tweets on the social media site late on Wednesday evening on the west coast after White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders brought her name up in a briefing relating to the cancellation of Roseanne.
“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,” she started.
She said that the image was inspired by Trump’s “sexist” comments to Don Lemon about Megyn Kelly from the 2015 campaign and the photo, which was staged by a “$10 Halloween mask and ketchup” was meant to play on the “blood coming out of her eyes” comment.
While admitting that she knew it would be controversial, Griffin said that she thought it would be a “one or two day thing” that was intended to “speak truth to power” but that after Trump began tweeting about the incident, she was put through the “Trump wood chipper”.
“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,” she said.
She accused Trump of “punching down” and using his followers to go after her. “Was that appropriate use of presidential power? I don’t think so,” she noted. “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. No other president in modern times has used his power this way and that’s why I keep speaking out about this. I don’t want this to happen to others and while it doesn’t always make for uplifting interviews – I’m not going to stop shining a bright light on this.”
Griffin also revealed how things got worse when Donald Trump Jr spoke on Good Morning America and how her press conference, organized by Lisa Bloom after Griffin was unable to “get a crisis manager or publicist at the time to take me on”, was a “total disaster”. She revealed that the Secret Service and U.S. Attorney kept open an investigation on Griffin for two months, a “surprising” amount of time according to a former Secret Service agent she spoke to.
The Suddenly Susan star said that 99% of the entertainment considered her “kryptonite” and was more harshly treated than male celebrities such as Johnny Depp or Snoop Dogg, so she went on a world tour.
“I couldn’t wait for [the industry] or seek permission. 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. I added another 20 or so cities to my tour and hope it does well but it’s no guarantee. And I hope to have a regular presence on TV again. For years I’ve made hundreds of millions of dollars for show promoters and TV networks,” she added. “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.”
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