Joan Rivers Refuses To Apologize For Crass Joke About Kidnapped Cleveland Women

People are outraged after Joan Rivers made a cringe-worthy remark Tuesday on the "Today Show."

While promoting her new WEtv reality series, "Joan & Melissa," the E! "Fashion Police" host joked that living with her daughter was worse than the Cleveland kidnapping victims being held captive for a decade by Ariel Castro - "Those women in the basement in Cleveland had more space."

Rivers crassly continued, "They got to live rent free for more than a decade."

The "Today Show" hosts were subsequently horrified.

YouTube/"Today Show"

As was Joan's daughter, Melissa.

But the 80-year-old comedian isn't apologizing for her insensitive remarks.

"One of them has a book deal, neither are in a psych ward," Rivers told TMZ. "They're OK. I bet you within three years, one of them will be on 'Dancing With the Stars.'"

The joke, however, wasn't funny to victims Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, who released a statement to Cleveland's local paper, The Plain Dealer, saying the TV personality had reached a "new low."

The womens' attorneys responded to Rivers by stating, "Our clients are strong, private women who have endured unwanted and often painful media attention for quite some time." The lawyers also demanded an apology from Rivers, but the comedian told the paper that it wasn't going to happen.

"I'm a comedienne," Rivers told the Plain Dealer on Wednesday. "I know what those girls went through. It was a little, stupid joke. There is nothing to apologize for. I made a joke. That's what I do. Calm down. Calm f------ down. I'm a comedienne. They're free, so let's move on."

Watch the cringe-worthy clip below: