Kathy Griffin accuses Stephen Colbert of 'bulls-- ambush' over infamous Trump severed head photo
Comedian Kathy Griffin lashed out at "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert over a 2018 interview where she claimed he ambushed her with questions about the infamous decapitated Trump photo.
Kathy Griffin accused Stephen Colbert of conducting a "bulls-- ambush" in a 2018 interview on "The Late Show" where the late-night host grilled the comedian about her controversial photo holding up a prop made to look like the bloodied decapitated head of President Donald Trump in 2017.
In a video posted to her YouTube channel on Tuesday, titled "Stephen Colbert made me cry!", the comedian recalled her December 2018 "The Late Show" appearnce, which took place roughly 18 months after the Trump photo controversy.
Griffin said that when booking the interview she requested that Colbert not bring up the Trump photo as she was tired of talking about it and a producer agreed. However, shortly before she was set to go on stage, she says the same person told her Colbert was going to ask her about it.
Griffin said she wasn’t happy about it but decided she would try to distract Colbert in order to change the subject. But she said she was shocked by how he kept pressing her on the Trump photo, comparing the experience to being grilled on "60 Minutes."
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"It was a line of questioning where I remember thinking, ‘Wow, he has way more of a bias against me and my right to take that photo than I imagined in my worst-case scenario, that I had imagined when I couldn’t sleep the night before because I was half scared and half excited,'" she said.
Griffin said she fought back tears during the interview in order to hide her distress from the audience.
"What was really happening was a bulls-- ambush" that was "laced with misogyny," she said, claiming Colbert wouldn’t have grilled a male comic in the same way.
She accused Colbert of using his platform to punch down against a "D-list" celebrity.
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While she said she used to have high respect for Colbert, the experience soured her on the comedian.
"For him to be coming at me that way and to see me almost lose it…I have such a low opinion of Stephen Colbert right now," Griffin added.
"What a d---," she said.
CBS did not return a request for comment.
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In the 2018 interview, Colbert spent roughly 10 minutes asking Griffin about the photo and the backlash she experienced from it.
"60 million Americans thought I was a member of ISIS," Griffin said during the interview. She explained how her professional career suffered and she was allegedly put under federal investigation for conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States.
She also defended her right to take the photo under the First Amendment, which Colbert pushed back on.
"There are limits, though, to what you can say about the President of the United States, having specifically to do with harm against the President of the United States," Colbert said.
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"Right, which I did not do," Griffin replied.
"Well, you were holding up a severed head —" Colbert disagreed.
"No, no. It was a mask. A Halloween mask with ketchup," Griffin objected. "Where would I get a severed head?"
"It looks like a severed head. It has blood on the neck," Colbert added.
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