President Donald Trump took to Twitter Wednesday morning to express his outrage over photos and video of comedian Kathy Griffin holding a bloody, decapitated head resembling that of the president.
Griffin apologized after the images surfaced on TMZ, which reported the images were taken at a photo shoot, and CNN cut her from its New Year's Eve program Wednesday. Trump called her "sick," saying in a tweet that his family is "having a hard time with this."
"Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!" he said.
First lady Melania Trump said the content of the video is disturbing and raises questions about Griffin's mental health in a statement obtained by NBC News.
"As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing. When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it," she said.
Donald Trump Jr. said Tuesday the picture was "disgusting but not surprising." And he called Griffin's apology "phony" Wednesday morning.
Griffin initially defended the images, showing her lifting the head with a straight face, as an "artsy fartsy statement" mocking the commander in chief. But she soon apologized.
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"I'm a comic. I crossed the line. I moved the line, then I crossed it. I went way too far," Griffin said.
Squatty Potty, a Utah-based bathroom products company, said in a statement Tuesday that it has suspended an ad campaign featuring Griffin.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said on MSNBC that he condemns Griffin's image and told her, a friend, that the image doesn't belong in American political discourse.
"This was just so wrong-headed and I told her it was. And then soon after, she made a very fulsome apology and asked — begged for forgiveness," Franken said.
