By now, you’ve probably heard that on Tuesday, Kathy Griffin got the bright idea to take part in a photo shoot featuring her lifting Donald Trump’s severed head. It was a stunt that was no different from the numerous effigies and images of Barack Obama being hung on the gallows.


In the face of withering criticism from all sides of the spectrum, Griffin apologized and deleted the videos from her Twitter feed. It was too little, too late. By the end of the week, CNN had bounced her from her slot as co-host of its New Year’s Eve show, and her summer tour was derailed after all of her remaining venues canceled her.

But there’s an incident of an attack on the First Family going several miles over the line that hasn’t gotten nearly as much coverage–even though it was at least as bad, and probably worse, than what Griffin did. How do you get anywhere near as outrageous as posing with the severed head of the president? Quite easily, as it turns out–by trashing the president’s 11-year-old son, Barron, on Twitter.

According to TMZ, Barron was watching the news in the penthouse at Trump Tower when one of the images of Griffin’s ill-fated photo shoot came on the screen. Barron was understandably frightened; he thought his father really had been brutally murdered. So he did what any 11-year-old would do–he screamed, “Mommy, mommy!”

Anyone, regardless of political shade, would understand how Barron felt. Well, almost anyone. When children’s author Ken Jennings–better known for his record 74-game winning streak on “Jeopardy!” in 2004–found out about how Barron reacted, he saw fit to fire off this on Twitter.

The criticism came fast, hard, and from all political shades.

https://twitter.com/lilygap3/status/870015984953733120

Did this make Jennings back off? Nope. When one user begged him to lay off Barron, Jennings actually doubled down.

He then claimed that he was actually calling out Liz Wheeler of fringe right-wing cable network One America News Network for using Barron as a prop.

The tweet in question?

Come off it, Ken. You expect us to believe that an author couldn’t find a way to make a dig at Wheeler and leave Barron out of it? And you expect us to believe you when you actually doubled down on your original tweet?

While Trump has remained silent for now, his oldest son, Donald, Jr., joined in on the effort by the Twitterverse to shut Jennings’ mouth for him.

Um, Donald, Jr.? There are a lot of us on the left who are just as outraged by this as you are.

Inquisitr’s Perri Fisher noted that this isn’t the first time that Jennings has needed 140 characters or less to open his mouth and jam his foot in deep. In 2014, he got the bright idea to trash disabled people everywhere.

In 2015, when he learned that terminally ill Star Wars fan Daniel Fleetwood died shortly after watching a special screening of “The Force Awakens,” Jennings saw fit to tap-dance on Fleetwood’s grave.

More recently, he “commemorated” Memorial Day with a couple of particularly tasteless tweets.

Wow. With all of these, you have to wonder if his publishers at Simon & Schuster are asleep at the switch. After all, unless I’m very wrong, no one from Simon & Schuster spoke up to denounce either of those tweets, even though Jennings was deservedly slammed on Twitter for them.

Simon & Schuster may not have a choice but to respond now. Many Twitter users have posted their telephone and online contact information and urged the publisher to tear up its contract with Jennings.

That would be the only acceptable response. Let’s be clear–we despise Trump and want to see him impeached, forced to resign, or defeated for reelection. But underage children of politicians are off limits. Period, full stop.

Apparently Jennings wasn’t paying attention when “Saturday Night Live” writer Katie Rich saw fit to trash Barron just 24 hours before his father took office. Within hours, NBC suspended Rich indefinitely. Her name never appeared on the credits again during “SNL’s” 42nd season, and as of this writing she still remains suspended.

Jennings should get the same treatment. If there was ever a case where a lot of good got ruined by one stupid act–okay, several stupid tweets–this is one of them. This is every bit as despicable as the almost-daily sliming that Sasha and Malia Obama had to endure. If you were outraged at how Sasha and Malia were trashed over the last eight years and can’t get outraged at what Jennings is doing here, you need to check your moral compass.

Believe it or not, there is someone who may be okay with this–Kathy Griffin. In December, Griffin told New York magazine that she was more than happy to “deliver beat down” to both Trump and Barron. No, Kathy. Kids don’t deserve a “beat down,” no matter who their father is. Had Griffin been smacked down for this, perhaps Jennings would have thought twice about his latest screed.

Well, it’s time to go high and let Jennings know this is not acceptable. Let him have it on Twitter and on Facebook. Be sure to give Simon & Schuster an earful too on Facebook and on Twitter. You can also call at 800-223-2336.

(featured image courtesy Jennings’ Facebook)

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