At a rambling news conference Friday, Griffin tearfully predicted her career is over and said Trump „broke me.“<\/b>
\nLOS ANGELES \u2014 Embattled comedian Kathy Griffin says she\u2019s not afraid of Donald Trump and plans to keep making fun of him but maintained that she\u2019s sorry for a video that depicted her holding a likeness of the president\u2019s severed, bloody head.
At a rambling news conference Friday, Griffin tearfully predicted her career is over and said Trump \u201cbroke me.\u201d Since the video was posted Tuesday, she has lost her job co-hosting CNN\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve special and had five comedy shows canceled. Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have publicly criticized the video.
Griffin, who asserted that she has been contacted by the Secret Service, said the Trumps are \u201ctrying to ruin my rights forever.\u201d
The Secret Service declined to comment Friday.
\u201cThe president, the first lady and the Secret Service have all made very clear their view on those thoughts, \u201d White House press secretary Sean Spicer said.
Griffin, 56, repeated her claim that the video was a parody, meant as a pointed comeback to Trump\u2019s remark last summer that former Fox News Channel personality Megyn Kelly had \u201cblood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of wherever.\u201d
\u201cI\u2019 m not laying down for this guy, \u201d she said in one defiant moment. \u201cI\u2019 m going to keep making jokes about this guy.\u201d
Republican Party spokesman Mike Reed called the press conference a \u201cdesperate attempt\u201d to change the conversation.
\u201cKathy Griffin\u2019s career was over long before she attempted to make a disgusting joke about decapitating the President, \u201d Reed said. \u201cWhat she did was wrong and President Trump and his family have every right to condemn it.\u201d
Griffin appeared surprised at the number of cameras and reporters in a packed conference room at her lawyer\u2019s office, her hands shaking at one point when she took a sip of water. She switched between contriteness to combativeness during the press conference, during which she attempted several nervous jokes that drew laughs mostly from her attorney, Lisa Bloom.
Bloom said the comedian has a First Amendment right to make fun of the president.
\u201cWhether or not you get, or like, her artistic expression, in America, Kathy has the right to parody the president, \u201d Bloom said. \u201cShe never imagined it would be misinterpreted as a threat of violence against Trump.\u201d
Bloom, a former truTV anchor and lawyer Gloria Allred\u2019s daughter, has represented Wendy Walsh, who has accused former Fox News Channel personality Bill O\u2019 Reilly of hurting her career after she spurned his advances. O\u2019 Reilly has denied the accusations.
Backlash against Griffin has continued to grow. Griffin said five of her performances have been canceled this week.
Venues in New Jersey, New York, New Mexico and Pennsylvania canceled upcoming shows. The Community Arts Theater in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, posted on its website that the show had been dropped \u201cdue to the recent controversy surrounding Kathy Griffin and the concern for the safety and security of our patrons and staff.\u201d
Sen. Al Franken also dis-invited Griffin from an event promoting his new book, \u201cGiant of the Senate.\u201d
\u201cAfter hearing from many Minnesotans who were rightfully offended, I\u2019 ve come to the conclusion that it would be best for her not to participate in the event we had previously scheduled, \u201d the Minnesota Democrat said Thursday, a day after he had said she was still welcome. \u201cI understand why Minnesotans were upset by this, and I take that very seriously.\u201d
He said what Griffin did \u201cwas inappropriate and not something that should be anywhere in our national discourse.\u201d
An endorsement deal with Squatty Potty also ended.
Though Griffin apologized within hours of the images appearing online Tuesday, they were met with swift and widespread condemnation.
Trump later tweeted that Griffin \u201cshould be ashamed of herself\u201d for posting the images.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday called Griffin \u201cdisgusting\u201d and said the photo was \u201ccompletely outrageous.\u201d
Even Anderson Cooper, her CNN co-host for the New Year\u2019s Eve show, condemned the images. Griffin said she has not spoken to Cooper since, and appeared visibly upset and struggled to speak when fielding questions about Cooper.
The comic has faced controversies before for her abrasive humor, but none as widespread as the one generated by Tuesday\u2019s images.___<\/p>\n

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