UPDATE | Griffin not 'laying down' for Trump, fears career is over
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Embattled comedian Kathy Griffin says she's not afraid of Donald Trump and plans to keep making fun of him but maintained that she's sorry for a video that depicted her holding a likeness of the president's severed, bloody head.
At a rambling news conference today, Griffin tearfully predicted her career is over and said Trump "broke me." Since the video was posted Tuesday, she has lost her job co-hosting CNN's New Year's Eve special and had five comedy shows canceled. The president, first lady Melania Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have publicly criticized the video.
Griffin, who asserted she has been contacted by the Secret Service, said the Trumps are "trying to ruin my rights forever."
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Griffin, 56, repeated her claim the video was a parody, meant as a pointed comeback to Trump's remark last summer that former Fox News Channel personality Megyn Kelly had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of wherever."
"I'm not laying down for this guy," she said in one defiant moment. "I'm going to keep making jokes about this guy."
Republican Party spokesman Mike Reed called the news conference a "desperate attempt" to change the conversation.
"Kathy Griffin's career was over long before she attempted to make a disgusting joke about decapitating the President," Reed said. "What she did was wrong, and President Trump and his family have every right to condemn it."
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