Comedian Kathy Griffin got into a shouting match on Twitter Thursday with CNN political editor-at-large Chris Cillizza over Griffin’s expletive-riddled defense of fellow comic Samantha Bee calling Ivanka Trump “a feckless c–t.”
“Shut the fuck up you hack. When the White House Press Secretary, on behalf of the President, says ‘Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast..’ we’re heading into first amendment territory,” Griffin tweeted to Cillizza, referring to Sarah Sanders and Bee’s remarks.
“That I have to explain this to you reminds me how dumb you are,” she continued.
[Also read: CNN anchor to parent company Time Warner on Samantha Bee controversy: ‘This is a family issue’]
Shut the fuck up you hack. When the White House Press Secretary, on behalf of the President, says “Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast..” we’re heading into first amendment territory.
That I have to explain this to you reminds me how dumb you are. https://t.co/UGAOapDVG8
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
Griffin’s Twitter outburst was provoked by Cillizza questioning her argument that Sanders’ condemnation of Bee’s language was akin to a free speech infringement.
“This isn’t about whether Samantha Bee CAN say it,” Cillizza wrote.
“It’s about whether she SHOULD say it. And whether we as a society SHOULD condone it,” he added.
This isn’t about whether Samantha Bee CAN say it.
It’s about whether she SHOULD say it.
And whether we as a society SHOULD condone it. https://t.co/egEshw5Ubv
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) May 31, 2018
Cillizza also blasted Griffin’s “name-calling” as “pointless.”
Name-calling is pointless.
The debate over how we should treat each other is not. https://t.co/h8PNTvNM9x
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) May 31, 2018
Bee apologized to Trump and her viewers Thursday after facing backlash for using the vulgar slur on the Wednesday night episode of her TBS show, “Full Frontal.”
“I would like to sincerely apologize to Ivanka Trump and to my viewers for using an expletive on my show to describe her last night,” Bee said. “It was inappropriate and inexcusable. I crossed a line, and I deeply regret it.”
Griffin responded by complaining that comedians were “held to higher standards than the president.”
Please do not be hard on @iamsambee for apologizing. While I was hoping she wouldn’t, I know first hand what it’s like being put through the Trump wood chipper..what she’s going through right now is crazy. All for a bleeped word. Comics held to higher standards than the president https://t.co/4kUkHpP8hl
— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) May 31, 2018
Earlier, Sanders had categorized Bee’s comments about President Trump’s eldest daughter as “vile and vicious.”
“The collective silence by the Left and its media allies are appalling,” Sanders wrote in a statement. “Her disgusting comments and show are not fit for broadcast.”
Griffin has been a fierce opponent of the Trump administration. In May 2017, she sparked outrage by posing in a promotional photo with a fake severed head that looked like President Trump’s.
