Kathy Griffin did not take kindly to Trump’s joke regarding seniors suffering from diabetes. “Trump at diabetes event at WH: ‘I don’t use insulin. Should I be?'” tweeted Jim Acosta, CNN’s chief White House correspondent.
Griffin quoted Trump’s comment in a tweet saying, “Syringe with nothing but air inside it would do the trick. F— TRUMP.”
The Washington Examiner asked Twitter if Griffin breached their violent threat policy and contacted the Secret Service seeking repercussions for the comedian after tweeting, “Griffin advocates for someone to stab Trump with [a] syringe full of air. Air embolisms, caused by air getting into the bloodstream, can be fatal.”
“I SURE DID F***ER,” Griffin tweeted in response.
Griffin’s syringe tweet sparked criticism surrounding past statements of her own, as well as Trump’s. Some interpreted the tweet as a reference to Trump’s remarks about exploring the option of treating COVID-19 with injections of disinfectant: "And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?”
Others are referencing Griffin’s prior scandal involving Trump in which she produced an image of herself holding what appeared to be the severed head of the president. “Are you encouraging yet another death threat against @POTUS? @SecretService she's at it again,” tweeted @GeminiSQ0714, who is referring to when Griffin was investigated by the Secret Service after the picture first surfaced in 2017.
Griffin has received some support amidst all the backlash. @briansantamaria tweeted, “The pearl clutching over Kathy Griffin is hilarious. Didn’t trump himself tell people to fill a syringe with bleach like a week ago? Hasn’t he been ranting all day specifically about free speech on twitter? Lol at trump’s protectors suddenly caring about decency. Ffs.”
Giffin’s tweet has since been taken down for violating Twitter rules.