ABCNews.com(LOS ANGELES) — A tearful Kathy Griffin spoke out in response to backlash after she posted a short video of herself holding a decapitated likeness of President Donald Trump’s head — saying that the president “broke me” by calling her stunt “sick.”
The photo that Griffin posted sparked an immediate and widespread backlash as well as condemnation from the president, who called her actions “sick” in a tweet. First lady Melania Trump called the image “disturbing” and said it “makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it.”
“I’m gonna be honest, he broke me,” Griffin said Friday of Trump’s response. “I may get arrested today, I don’t know.”
The comedian said she is also getting “detailed death threats.”
“This is America, you shouldn’t have to die” over comedy, she added.
In the photo, which Griffin tweeted on May 30, then took down, she captioned herself holding up a fake Trump head, covered in fake blood, “I caption this ‘there was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his … wherever,'” referring to an exchange between Donald Trump and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly during the presidential primary season.
Griffin’s First Amendment lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said that the Secret Service reached out to her and that she had to retain a criminal attorney as well. Griffin maintains she was not threatening the president.
Read: Kathy Griffin enlists celeb lawyer to respond to ‘bullying from the Trump family she has endured’
Griffin explained that her and photographer Tyler Shields only spent five minutes coming up with the idea and that the pictures were part of a larger photo shoot that didn’t include Trump.
The picture was never meant as anything malicious and that it was supposed to be interpreted in different ways, she added.
“I have no desire to threaten him,” she said. “I made a horrible mistake and made a horrible call.”
When talking about the aftermath of the pictures, Griffin said “I don’t think I have a career after this.” She was recently let go from CNN’s New Years Eve special and added Friday that five concert venues have already canceled some of her shows.
The 56-year-old comedian also spoke about the tweets in response from Trump himself, calling the act “sick” and from the President’s wife Melania, which focused on their son Baron’s well-being.
“Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!” Trump wrote the morning after the picture started trending on the internet.
Bloom said that Griffin couldn’t have imagined that her stunt would be misinterpreted and that other artists have done worse.
“I’m not afraid of Donald Trump … I’m gonna make fun of him more now,” she said Friday.
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