"Enough with holding everyone else but the president of the United States and his staff to higher standards."
Kathy Griffin knows what it feels like to be the target of outrage.
In May 2017, she posed for a photo holding a fake, bloody head of Donald Trump, which resulted in massive backlash and the cancellation of her comedy tour. Now, she’s slowly making her way back to the spotlight after an appearance on “Real Time with Bill Maher” and an upcoming sold-out show at Carnegie Hall.
On April 29, Griffin stood up for comedienne Michelle Wolf, who’s facing criticism for her performance at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner the night before.
The dinner traditionally features a comedian who roasts the president and his administration. But President Trump has refused to attend the event for the past two years, bucking a tradition that began with Calvin Coolidge in 1924.
During her performance, Wolf joked about the president’s alleged affair with Stormy Daniels, the Roy Moore scandal, and Donald Trump, Jr.,’s hair — but her riff on Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has caused the most controversy:
“Every time Sarah steps up to the podium, I get excited because I’m not really sure what we’re going to get: You know, a press briefing, a bunch of lies, or divided into softball teams. ‘It’s shirts and skins, and this time, don’t be such a little bitch, Jim Acosta.’
“I actually really like Sarah. I think she’s very resourceful. Like, she burns facts, and then she uses the ash to create a perfect smoky eye. Like, maybe she’s born with it; maybe it’s lies. It’s probably lies.
“And I’m never really sure what to call Sarah Huckabee Sanders. You know, is it Sarah Sanders? Is Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Is it Cousin Huckabee? Is it Auntie Huckabee Sanders? Like, what’s Uncle Tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? Oh, I know: Aunt Coulter.”
Wolf received a lot of criticism for supposedly mocking Sanders’ looks, but all she said was that Sanders has “perfect smokey” eye makeup.
Some in the media also spoke out against her performance:
\nWatching a wife and mother be humiliated on national television for her looks is deplorable. I have experienced insults about my appearance from the president. All women have a duty to unite when these attacks happen and the WHCA owes Sarah an apology.
— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) April 29, 2018\n
\nApology is owed to @PressSec and others grossly insulted ny Michelle Wolf at White House Correspondents Assoc dinner which started with uplifting heartfelt speech by @margarettalev - comedian was worst since Imus insulted Clinton’s
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) April 29, 2018\n
As expected, plenty of pearl-clutching conservative talking heads spoke out against Wolf’s performance.
\nWhat a horrid human being Michelle Wolf is. I’m going to read up on her over the next couple of days and I will have a few brutally mean jokes about her by Wednesday.
— Dennis Miller (@DennisDMZ) April 29, 2018\n
\nMichelle Wolf's disgusting attack against @PressSec Sarah Huckabee Sanders reminded conservatives, even #NeverTrump folks, of the disdain Democrats have for strong conservative women.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) April 29, 2018\n
Democrats hate strong independent conservative women. #WHCD
\nThose who think that the tasteless classless bullying at the WHCD was an example of the 1st Amendment should never condemn bullying, bigoted comments, racist bile or hate speech. People should be free to speak but held accountable for it.
— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) April 29, 2018\n
These folks must have forgotten they supported Trump, a man who’s made terrible comments about women’s looks, mocked a disabled reporter (and is actively trying to decimate the social supports that keep disabled people alive), and bullied his political opponents by giving them childish nicknames.
\nDonald Trump:
— #JDIYFR (@JDIYFR) April 30, 2018\n
“Grab em by the pussy”
“I moved on her like a bitch”
“Blood coming out of her wherever”
“I would bomb the shit out of them”
“If she wasn’t my daughter I’d date her”
“African countries are shithole nations”
Republicans:
— “Michelle Wolf was over the top” #WHCDinner
\nDonald Trump:
— Ryan Knight (@ProudResister) April 29, 2018\n
— “Grab em by the pussy”
— “I moved on her like a bitch”
— “Blood coming out of her wherever”
— “I would bomb the shit out of them”
— “If she wasn’t my daughter I’d date her”
— “African countries are shithole nations”
Republicans:
— “Michelle Wolf was over the top”
Griffin, who was in attendance at the dinner, came to Wolf’s aid on Twitter, calling the press hypocritical.
“So journalists are willing to demand that a comic hired to roast people apologize but they aren’t willing to demand that Trump or his staff apologize to people?” Griffin tweeted. “Is that where we’re at now? Can someone explain the difference to me?”
Check out her comments below:
\nA) Ok I have some thoughts on @michelleisawolf's act and the reaction to it from members of the press and other DC insiders. For the record, I was in the room last night. @michelleisawolf's set was great. She was hilarious and confident.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nB) First, @michelleisawolf took no prisoners last night. She roasted Trump, Pence, White House staffers, the media, media personalities. Everyone is focused on Sanders but that was only 1 1/2 minutes of Michelle's act. She went after everyone...as it should be.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nC) @michelleisawolf was hired to do a roast. That was her job. She wasn't hired to offer media analysis or be fair and balanced. She was hired to poke fun at powerful people. Not once did she punch down. She focused on the people/institutions that are powerful beyond measure
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nD) A comic's job is to go over the line and then push the line and go over it again. Great comics aren't supposed to be safe or careful. That would mean we're not doing our job. By pushing the line we force people to think differently, to ask questions, and disrupt the status quo
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nE) Comics by their nature are anti-establishment. They are charged with the often unenviable task of going after people in power. It's a lot easier to tell jokes about the difference between LA and NYC or cats and dogs.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nF) Enough with holding everyone else but the President of the United States and his staff to higher standards. This does not mean i don't recognize that investigative journalists at the NYT and WAPO etc are doing their part to expose this administration..what I'm concerned about.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nG) Is that journalists often say they can't use certain language about Trump because they have to be objective. Fine. But they're willing to use words like "mean" about a comic's act? How is it objective to offer subjective commentary about a comic's joke's about POTUS?
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nH) Trump chooses not to attend the #WHCD - instead the White House said Sarah Sanders was attending in his place. She sat on the dais where the President usually sits. So of course she was going to get some of the toughest jokes, she was Trump's proxy.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nI) The calls for the @whca and @michelleisawolf to apologize are absurd. They're coming from reporters and many Trumpers. Trump has famously (and he says this himself) never truly apologized because he thinks it makes him look weak.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nJ) And no the apology for the Access Hollywood tape doesn't count because now Trump goes around telling people he doesn't think the voice is his per NYT. So cut the bullshit.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nK) Andrea, it was nice to meet you last night and I respect your work as a journalist, but when's the last time you demanded Trump or WH staffers apologize for their horrific statements? When's the last time you demanded Trump apologize for being a birther?https://t.co/tn9HkDOOq9
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nL) By the way for the @Scaramucci @dmartosko's of the world please tell me why anyone should apologize when Trump has never apologized for lying for years about Obama's birthplace and then at a press conference took no responsibility for it and lied again.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nM) I'll tell you what has the media so upset, because @michelleisawolf told the truth about them last night and the role they played in allowing Trump's rise. They hate to be called out on their bullshit, it's painful..I get it. But she said what needed to be said.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nN) So journalists are willing to demand that a comic hired to roast people apologize but they aren't willing to demand that Trump or his staff apologize to people? Is that where we're at now? Can someone explain the difference to me?
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nO) This administration (and the reporters who intentionally or indirectly support it) are always demanding that artists apologize. From the Hamilton Cast to me to @michelleisawolf. But they never apologize for anything.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nP) Also @michelleisawolf never talked about Sanders' appearance, she was talking about her character. But anyone pearl clutching over her comments and demanding she apologize needs to demand that Trump apologize for calling women fat pigs, slobs, talking about their bodies
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nQ) Not to mention, apologize for comments like "blood coming out of her..." - but no they haven't demanded that of him because they're terrified of Trump. Instead, they go after a comic who is paid to make jokes. They go after her instead of a man with real power. Pathetic.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nR) BS @dmartosko. Sarah was there on the dais as a proxy for the President. That’s how the White House billed It. Michelle couldn’t just focus on just Trump because he was too scared to show up. https://t.co/x76JdWjvDP
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nS) Stop acting like @michelleisawolf showed up at the playground and started making fun of Sarah Sanders in front of her children. Sarah was there representing Trump, on the dais, at an event with a professional comic who was hired to do a roast.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 29, 2018\n
\nT) This is such bullshit! @michelleisawolf told some jokes and you condemn her? You are a bunch of enablers. https://t.co/Hbp1OroAnn
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 30, 2018\n
\nU) What people are forgetting is how many people/institutions she hit in her act. In fact, while all these reporters are preaching about their objectivity, Michelle was in many ways more objective than them. She went after MSNBC, the liberal media and their Russia obsession..
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 30, 2018\n
\nV) She went after CNN, hell she even went for the conservative holy grail...Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick! But all everyone is talking about is 1 1/2 minutes of her act involving Sarah Sanders. You think the GOP would be saavy enough to enjoy her other comments.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 30, 2018\n
\nW. @michelleisawolf did what a good roast master does...she spread the roast around..everyone got hit. That's the way you do it, so people can walk away not feeling like they were targeted, but that the roast master took down the whole room.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 30, 2018\n
\nX. But who am I kidding, even if @michelleisawolf's set was boring as oatmeal, as long as Trumpers were criticized in any way, they would find a way to hate it. They are humorless and never want to encounter criticism in any form.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 30, 2018\n
\nY. I really hope the @whca doesn't stop having comics at the dinner to serve as roast master. It's one of the few occasions the most powerful people in the world (including the President) are held accountable via comedy. It's an important tradition. It's an important message.
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 30, 2018\n
\nZ. Just imagine when people around the world see the @WHCA dinner and see a comic making fun of the President...isn't that what we used to be about? Offering hope? Setting an example?
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) April 30, 2018\n
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