00:00A year after Kathy Griffin made headlines for a photoshoot stunt featuring her
00:03holding a depiction of President Donald Trump's severed head, the comedian took to
00:07Twitter to reflect on the experience and to encourage people to hold the president
00:11accountable for his abuse of power. After Sarah Sanders included Griffin's name in a
00:15White House press briefing about the president's response to Roseanne's
00:18cancellation, the comedian was inspired to publish 50-plus tweets describing the
00:22damage to her life and career, the effort she has undergone in order to rebuild both,
00:26and how she still refuses to let the president break her. Griffin wrote,
00:30The image was inspired by Trump's sexist comments to Don Lemon about Megyn Kelly from the
00:342015 campaign, so the mask photo was meant to be a play on those sexist comments about
00:38Megyn. Did I know the photo would cause controversy? Of course, but I thought it would be a
00:43one- or two-day thing. My point was to do something provocative in an attempt to keep
00:47the spotlight shining on his sexism. In my mind, that's the role that comics are supposed to play.
00:52Griffin went on to note that comics are supposed to push boundaries and take risks
00:55using provocation as a tool. She explained that she wanted to use the image to keep the
00:59focus on Trump's misogyny amid the chaos the president was causing. A year later,
01:04Griffin sees the president as the most powerful news director and campaign director,
01:07noting that a tweet from Trump is an order to his millions of followers and the news
01:11media, with her as the target. The comedian wrote she had the right to put out the images,
01:15but it was plain wrong for the president of the United States to use his power to come
01:19after me or anyone else he is offended by. No other president in modern times has used his
01:24power this way and that's why I keep speaking out about this, she wrote.
01:27The comedian also recalled the bomb threat, show cancellations and struggle she endured to
01:31land a publicist or crisis manager and how she wound up going through with the ill-fated
01:35press conference in which she said that Trump broke her. And now, a year later, she
01:39acknowledged that he did indeed break her for two days. She recalled her experience with the
01:43Secret Service and U.S. Attorney who kept the investigation open for two months in an
01:48attempt to intimidate and revealed that she was later detained in every airport as she
01:52toured overseas where audiences accepted and understood her intent with the now infamous photo.
01:57Trump didn't win in the long run, Griffin wrote.
01:59I won't let him. I have scraped my way back into touring and I will keep pushing and I won't
02:03give up. But I know I'm in a special position. Trump's abuse of power keeps getting worse
02:07and worse. What's next?
02:09The comedian concluded her tweets with this post.
02:11The only way to deal with a presidency that abuses power and is authoritarian in nature
02:16is to make sure that we back up those that the administration has tried to knock down.
02:20It's exhausting but so important if we have any hope of preserving our democracy.
02:24To read more on this story and to read Kathy Griffin's full tweet chain, head to THR.com.
02:28For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lindsay Rodriguez.
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