The backlash surrounding comedian Kathy Griffin’s reviled photo shoot depicting her holding the severed head of President Trump hasn’t let down since it first exploded earlier this week.

In just the last few days she’s been dumped by CNN, Squatty Potty and several venues across the country. Even friend and “New Year’s Eve Live” sidekick Anderson Cooper was quick to distance himself from his former co-host, calling her photo “disgusting.” Now many are asking whether the comedian can survive her self-inflicted wound — one that’s increasingly threatening to derail her career.

“Being dropped by CNN definitely hurts her visibility,” Matt Hiltzik, a New York-based communications consultant whose clients have included Harvey Weinstein, Alec Baldwin and Justin Bieber, told TheWrap. “Her business will be fine. But her opportunities to grow beyond her core base will be limited.”

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After widespread condemnation over her graphic photo, Griffin apologized on Tuesday, begging for forgiveness and acknowledging she “went too far.” But on Friday, she held an impromptu press conference with attorney Lisa Bloom, telling reporters she’s been bullied by Trump’s family while vowing to mock the president even more in the future.

But if the intent was to quash the flurry of negative headlines that have dominated the news cycle in recent days, it may have missed the mark.

“Kathy Griffin claims ‘conspiracy’ at mad, looping press conference,” proclaimed Salon. Jezebel called it a “poorly conceived mess.”

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“I understand when you’re in this situation there’s a natural urge to respond,” public relations expert Howard Bragman told TheWrap, however, “that has to be done with great caution and consideration.”

Another top Hollywood publicist, who asked not to be named, said the news conference only made things worse.

“If she were my client, I’d tell her to shut the f— up,” the P.R. guru told TheWrap. “You’re not talking to anyone and you’re certainly not talking to Lisa Bloom anymore.”

Also Read: Jim Carrey Defends Kathy Griffin Over Trump Photo: Comedians Are 'Last Line of Defense'

According to the publicist, who said he likes Griffin, her approach was ill-conceived because it lacked any perceivable strategy.

“What is she trying to accomplish?” he asked. “Is she trying to sue Trump? Good luck with that. Is she trying to say she’s the victim? I think 99 percent of the people would disagree with that. She did this to herself.”

“It certainly keeps her in the news,” he added.

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All three publicists said Griffin will likely retain her core fans who have supported her for years and who are mostly anti-Trump liberals.

“She’ll have to lay low for a while and then come back and address the elephant in the room, maybe make fun of herself,” the P.R. expert went on to say. “The gays are not going to leave her. This will go away if she just shuts up. There is a real crisis in this country right now and anything she says is just a distraction.”

The good news for Griffin is that she can recover … but it might take a while for the whole thing to blow over.

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“She’s going to have to recalibrate and reconsider,” Bragman said. “But in no way is this going to end her career. She’s funny, she’s immensely talented. She’s original.”

7 People Defending Kathy Griffin After Decapitated Trump Photo Shoot (Photos)

Kathy Griffin's photo of herself posing with the severed head of Donald Trump has been met with widespread condemnation and already cost the comedian her gig at CNN. But a few individuals are still publicly standing by Griffin, even if they don't entirely approve of her actions.
Jim Carrey came to Griffin's defense when asked about the photo at the premiere of his Showtime series "I'm Dying Up Here." Carrey told Entertainment Tonight that it's Griffin's duty to "cross the line at all times," adding that comedians are the "last line of defense."
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Ricky Gervais also defended Griffin in an interview with TheWrap, saying that the photo was in poor taste, but ultimately harmless. "The only way you could say she went wrong was that it was a bit crass," Gervais said. "It wasn't great art. But OK, let’s say it was bad art. So what? Nobody got hurt. That wasn’t a real head."
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The photographer Tyler Shields is also defending the photo as an artistic statement and an expression of his First Amendment right to free speech. "There’s the famous quote, 'I don’t agree with you, but I’ll defend your right to say it,'” Shields told Entertainment Weekly. "I might not agree with [Trump], she definitely doesn’t agree with him, but I’ll defend my right to be able to say whatever I want until I die."
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"I still love Kathy Griffin," Jamie Foxx told Entertainment Tonight, when asked about the backlash. "Don't kill the comedian! There's a lot of people out here doing really bad things and every time a comedian says anything, says something about peanuts, [people say], 'You're peanut-shaming!' [A comedian] says something about dolphins [people say], 'Oh my god, you're a dolphin-shamer.' We're the comics, we're entertainers, we don't mean any harm."
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Former CNN star Larry King took a similar stance, saying the image was “in terrible taste,” but ultimately expressing sympathy for Griffin as a friend. “She’s my friend. She made a mistake. She apologized. Let it go," King told TMZ, adding that he would not have fired Griffin had he been running CNN.
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‘Inside Amy Schumer’ writer Mike Lawrence came down on Griffin for apologizing for the stunt in a post on Facebook. “You know what you did and should own it. It wasn’t a riff onstage or a joke you had done once or twice," he wrote. "You wanted a reaction and got it. So live in it. Don’t apologize."
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Rosie O’Donnell tweeted about Griffin’s stunt by saying that she “didn’t find it funny at all.” But the longtime Trump critic has also retweeted a number of messages from users who say that similar actions — including people burning or lynching effigies of Barack Obama — have not been met with the same level of outrage.
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Civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom announced on Thursday that she will represent Griffin, and will host a press conference on Friday to "explain the true motivation behind the image, and respond to the bullying from the Trump family she has endured."
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Griffin has been criticized from both the left and the right, but a few people are standing by her

Kathy Griffin's photo of herself posing with the severed head of Donald Trump has been met with widespread condemnation and already cost the comedian her gig at CNN. But a few individuals are still publicly standing by Griffin, even if they don't entirely approve of her actions.

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