Barney Frank Talks Kathy Griffin, Pills, and DADT

Congressman Barney Frank spoke with The New York Times Magazine on Sunday, and said that he told Kathy Griffin that his inability to pass a “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal within one day would not be the only “bitter pill” she would have to swallow that week.

Times question and answer columnist Deborah Solomon asked Frank, “Why would you let her film you in your office in Washington for a show called ‘My Life on the D-List’?”

Frank responded, “She asked me if I would do it, and if you say no, then you get demonized as someone who is afraid. So she came to my office and said, ‘I demand that you pass the repeal — don’t ask, don’t tell — by tomorrow, and if not, it will be a bitter pill.’ I said, ‘Well, it won’t be the only pill you swallow this week, I’m sure.’”

Asked whether he meant to imply that Griffin was a “pill popper,” Frank responded, “I said what I said.”

Frank also recently wrote a critical letter to Griffin after she referred to the daughters of U.S. senator Scott Brown as “prostitutes” on her show. Solomon also asked the out congressman about that.

Read the entire exchange here.