Kathy Griffin has reignited her longtime feud with The viewlaunching a scathing verbal attack on former co-hosts just days after her latest appearance on the talk show.
Speaking on her YouTube series on Tuesday, the comedian didn’t hold back as she took aim at Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Meghan McCain.
While she noted that her recent meeting with current hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin went smoothly, she was far less complimentary about the show’s former stars, describing Hasselbeck’s previous presence as “outraged stupidity” and using a particularly foul-mouthed reference to McCain.
The comedian admitted that she enjoys provoking McCain because she “takes the bait every time,” even predicting that the former host would likely respond by questioning Griffin’s feminist credentials.
This latest outburst comes at a significant turning point for Griffin, who feels she has finally been “cancelled” nearly a decade after her career was derailed.
In 2017, she sparked global outrage after posing for a photo with a blood-covered mask resembling Donald Trump, a move that led to a federal investigation and saw her blacklisted from the industry for seven years.
Reflecting on that period, Griffin said WUSF that while the scandal cost her almost ten years of work, she now looks back on the picture with pride.
She claimed she was “ahead of her time” and feels vindicated by subsequent political events, claiming her deep personal history with Trump dating back to the 1990s made the fallout feel targeted and bizarre.
Despite her first apology in 2017, in which she admitted she had “crossed the line”, she now says she is leaning fully into the controversy.
Griffin credited comedian Jim Carrey with helping her survive the backlash, recalling how he told her the day the photo went viral that most comedians would give their right arm for that level of cultural influence.
After seven years away from the stage, she has finally returned to touring and expressed her shock at the warm reception she has received.
She described her recent audiences as “amazing” and noted that it feels like the public is finally embracing her again after years in the professional wilderness.
