Kathy Griffin has certainly learned the cost of folly in the weeks after she held up what appeared to be the gore-soaked head of President Donald Trump, thus scaring to death his son Barron and outraging the nation. She has lost her gig at CNN and a number of stand-up comedy appearances. The press conference during which she tearfully pronounced herself “broken” did not win her any sympathy. Hot Air now reports that Griffin has received the long anticipated visit by agents of the Secret Service.
Does the Secret Service really think Kathy Griffin is a grave threat to the president?
A reasonable person, no matter how appalled they are at Griffin and her stunt, would suspect that she is not a real threat to the life of Donald Trump. However, the federal agency that is charged with protecting the life of the president has procedures that have to be followed. That process has to include interviewing someone like Griffin who thought it would be funny to display what appeared to be the severed head of the president in an ISIS-style video.
Also, paying a visit to someone like Griffin would have the salutary effect of warning people that there are consequences to threatening the life of the president, even in jest.
The hope is likely that people will take notice of this and will think twice before performing a similar stunt.
What happens next?
Officially, the Griffin case remains open. The Secret Service will probably keep it open as well, just to make her sweat. When the matter is finally closed, perhaps weeks or months from now, Griffin will be all but forgotten, worth a paragraph of two when the histories of the Age of Trump are written years hence.
Griffin may not be the only person due for a visit from humorless Secret Service agents. Johnny Depp recently wondered whether it was now time for an actor to have another go at an American president. Since this statement was an apparent reference to John Wilkes Booth, who capped the Civil War by murdering President Abraham Lincoln, Depp may be dealt with a little more seriously.
Then, too, the purveyors of the production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” during which Donald Trump was stabbed to death night after night may expect a visit from the Secret Service as well. Like Griffin, the people who turned the Bard’s work into assassination porn will claim that all they were doing was art, meant for irony. They will enjoy explaining that reasoning at length to government agents when they come calling.
