Kathy Griffin shows cancelled by 2 NJ venues as Secret Service investigates

NEW BRUNSWICK — Two New Jersey venues have canceled performances by comedian Kathy Griffin following her controversial video with the fake, severed head of President Donald Trump.

The State Theatre of New Brunswick cited "the safety of their patrons" as the reason for canceling the Nov. 3 performance. Bergen PAC in Englewood tweeted late Thursday it decided to "no longer move forward" with Griffin's concert scheduled for Nov. 4.

Griffin tweeted a video of her slowly lifting the bloody head of the president. She originally described the project with photographer Tyler Shields as an "artsy fartsy statement" mocking the commander-in-chief. She later apologized and said she "went too far" with the video.

Both venues offered customers a full refund but did not mention the incident that has led to Griffin being fired from her New Year's Eve show on CNN, and as a spokeswoman for Squatty Potty.

Griffin and attorney Lisa Bloom held a press conference on Friday where the 56-year-old was alternatively defiant and fearful.

"I'm not laying down for this guy. I'm going to keep making jokes about this guy," Griffin said. Bloom said the comedian has a first amendment right to make fun of the president.

"I've dealt with white guys trying to me down before," Griffin said.

Griffin said she Trump "broke her" and said the Secret Service has contacted her. Attorney Dmitry Gorin, who is a criminal lawyer representing Griffin in the Secret Service investigation, said the shoot was parody and the comedian did nothing wrong. He said Griffin is cooperating with the agency.

She said that the bloody likeness of the president was meant as a parody of Trump's comments about then-Fox News host Megyn Kelly having "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of wherever."

Gov. Chris Christie, a friend of the president, called Griffin "disgusting" during an event at the Statehouse on Thursday and said no one should hire her to perform.

“If some comedian was holding the decapitated head of Barack Obama I want to wonder what the press reaction would have been. For some reason there seems to be there’s two standards that get applied here. Somehow it’s different with Donald Trump. I don’t think it is. He’s the President of the United States. It’s outrageous and unacceptable," Christie said. He said that comments Ted Nugent made about former president Barack Obama were also "inappropriate."

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com.

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