Good news, Kathy Griffin; at least you can depend on Larry King for support in your times of trouble.
Former longtime CNN personality King took his ex network to task for giving Griffin the ax, after she posed for a photo depicting her holding the decapitated head of President Donald Trump.
While acknowledging that the photo was in “terrible taste,” King said Thursday that he wouldn’t have 86’ed her, and neither would CNN founder Ted Turner.
“I feel sorry for Kathy. She’s my friend, she apologized, let it go,” King offered, in video published by TMZ.
Asked if CNN was right to terminate her, King replied, “I wouldn’t have fired her, Ted Turner wouldn’t have fired her.”
“They’re jumping all over her now .. I would have kept her,” King continued. “It was a terrible mistake, no one feels sorrier than her, she’s apologized. CNN shouldn’t have let her go.”
CNN severed ties with Griffin on Wednesday after the photo, taken by photographer Tyler Shields, stirred widespread outrage.
“CNN has terminated our agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on our New Year’s Eve program,” a network spokesperson told TheWrap in a statement.
Griffin had co-hosted CNN’s New Year’s Eve program with Anderson Cooper — who also criticized the photo — for a decade.
The termination came after Griffin offered an apology for the photo, acknowledging that she went “way too far.”
“I crossed the line,” Griffin said in a video post via Twitter. “I went way too far. The image is too disturbing, I understand how it offends people. It wasn’t funny. I get it. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career, I will continue. I ask for your forgiveness. Taking down the image. I’m going to ask the photographer to take down the image. And I beg for your forgiveness. I went too far. I made a mistake and I was wrong.”
Shortly after the photo surfaced, toilet stool company Squatty Potty announced it was dumping Griffin from its recent ad campaign.