 Kathy Griffin posed for this photo with a bloodied replica of Donald Trump's head. (Courtesy of Tyler Shields) |
Kathy Griffin posed for this photo with a bloodied replica of Donald Trump's head. (Courtesy of Tyler Shields) |
Outrage poured in from both sides of the political aisle Tuesday over a horrific and shocking photo of comedian Kathy Griffin with a bloodied replica of a beheaded President Trump.
Even Trump's toughest critics were turned off by the offensive display, which features a stone-faced Griffin holding aloft the fake Trump head like a terrorist inspiring her twisted troops.
Griffin cluelessly defended the display as nothing more than "art," but the Secret Service took it seriously enough to weigh in on the photo.
"On it!" the agency tweeted. "@SecretService has a robust protective intelligence division that monitors open source reporting & social media to evaluate threats. "Threats made against @SecretService protectees receive the highest priority of all of our investigations. #ProtectionNeverRests"
Earlier, Griffin cluelessly defended the display as nothing more than "art," but the Secret Service took it seriously enough to weigh in.
"On it!" the agency tweeted. "@SecretService ... monitors open source reporting & social media to evaluate threats. "Threats made against @SecretService protectees receive the highest priority of all of our investigations."
Neither does shamelessness. After posing for photographer Tyler Shields and posting the slow-motion video on her Twitter feed, Griffin followed it up with an insensitive social media screed.
"I caption this 'There was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his...wherever,'" Griffin tweeted. "OBVIOUSLY, I do not condone ANY violence by my fans or others to anyone, ever! I'm merely mocking the Mocker in Chief."
But the damage was already done, and the retribution was fierce.
"Disgusting but not surprising. This is the left today," Trump's son Donald Jr. tweeted. "They consider this acceptable. Imagine a conservative did this to Obama as POTUS."
Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, also condemned the image.
"This is vile and wrong," she tweeted. "It is never funny to joke about killing a President."
"Disgusting but not surprising. This is the left today," Trump's son Donald Jr. tweeted. "They consider this acceptable. Imagine a conservative did this to Obama as POTUS."
Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, also condemned the image.
"This is vile and wrong," she tweeted. "It is never funny to joke about killing a President."
Griffin was trending on social media for much of the day, and her reviews were not good.
"What Kathy Griffin has done here is shocking and wrong," wrote Evan Siegfried. "It's behavior that should be condemned by all."
Another person compared the photo to radical terrorism: "Kathy Griffin shows her support for ISIS by holding a mock-up of President Trump's decapitated head."
The gruesome image united the left and right.
Shields, who shot the shocking photo, also defended the image as "art."
Shields said the photo was mostly Griffin's idea.
"She came to me," Shields said. "She said she'd like to do something political, that she'd love to do something that makes a statement. It's always a collaboration. It wasn't completely her, but it wasn't completely me either. Without Kathy, I would have never done a photo like that."
Griffin's controversial photo surfaced more than a year after comedian George Lopez tweeted a picture of a drawing depicting Trump's detached head held up by Mexican drug lord Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman.
Musician Marilyn Manson, meanwhile, beheaded a character in a dark suit and red tie — both trademarks of Trump — in his music video for the song "SAY10" last November.
In March, Trump himself decried a Snoop Dogg video featuring the rapper aiming a gun at the head of a Trump look-alike.
"Can you imagine what the outcry would be if @SnoopDogg, failing career and all, had aimed and fired the gun at President Obama? Jail time!" Trump tweeted.
Griffin has been an outspoken critic of the President and includes bits about him and his family in her standup shows.
Griffin is well-known for appearing on CNN's New Year's coverage with Anderson Cooper. CNN officials did not respond to a request for comment.