January 8, 2011: Kathy Griffin Blamed Sarah Palin’s ‘Crosshairs Map’ for Gabby Giffords’ Shooting

On May 30, comedian Kathy Griffin tweeted a photo of herself holding a head that was supposed to be President Trump’s, intimating that Trump had been beheaded.

The New York Daily News reported that the photographer behind the photo, Tyler Shields, defended it as an example of “art.”

Shields also said that Griffin initiated talks that led to the photo, saying, “She came to me. She said she’d like to do something political, that she’d love to do something that makes a statement.” He added, “It’s always a collaboration. It wasn’t completely her, but it wasn’t completely me either. Without Kathy, I would’ve never done a photo like that. She’s the only person I can ever see doing this … Not a lot of people are fearless enough to do something like this.”

This is ironic when one considers January 8, 2011 — the date on which Representative Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) was shot by the mentally ill Jared Loughner. That shooting occurred after former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had asked conservative voters to target certain Congressional districts in the 2010 midterm elections, so as to vote representatives who voted for Obamacare out of office.

Palin’s political action committee, SarahPAC, had released a graphic showing crosshairs on 20 swing districts then held by Democrats in Congress that could flip to Republicans. Due to Palin’s successful endorsements of candidates in those swing districts, 19 of those 20 targeted races were won by Republicans in the 2010 midterms. The one district that stayed Democratic was Giffords’.

This is how Griffin reacted to news of the attack on Giffords:

Watching the news? Congresswoman in AZ,who is ON Sarah Palin's crosshairs map was SHOT in the head 2day. Happy now Sarah?

— Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) January 8, 2011

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.