TOPLINE
The widower of Lori Klausutis, an aide to Joe Scarborough when he was a member of Congress and who died suddenly in 2001, called on Twitter to take down President Trump’s tweets baselessly accusing the MSNBC host of Morning Joe of having murdered her.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with his cabinet in the East Room of the White House ... [+]
KEY FACTS
“My request is simple: Please delete those tweets,” Timothy Klausutis wrote in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, published by the New York Times in an opinion piece Tuesday, adding that his wife “deserves better.”
While working as an aide to Scarborough 19 years ago, Klausutis died suddenly after hitting her head on a desk; authorities determined she had hit her head after losing consciousness from an abnormal heart rhythm and found no signs of foul play.
As recently as this past weekend, though, Trump has continued to push a conspiracy theory that Scarborough had an affair with Klausutis and then murdered her.
Earlier this month, Trump called for an investigation of Scarborough, asking whether he “got away with murder?”
In the letter, Klausutis said Trump was perverting his wife’s death for “perceived political gain” and argued the president’s tweets violated Twitter guidelines: “An ordinary user like me would be banished from the platform for such a tweet but I am only asking that these tweets be removed,” he said.
Last year, Twitter responded to a request from Senator Kamala Harris to suspend Trump’s account for violating the platform’s guidelines by maintaining world leaders don’t always have to follow its rules.
Crucial quote
“I am now angry as well as frustrated and grieved. I understand that Twitter’s
In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson said: “We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements . . . are causing the family.” Changes are in the works to “expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward.”
Key background
The president has lashed out at Scarborough and his wife, Mika Brzezinski, who together host a show on MSNBC called Morning Joe, before. Then-candidate Trump went on the show frequently in 2016, but the relationship soured as the duo became more critical of Trump. Scarborough, who used to be a Republican, announced he was leaving the party in June 2017. In June 2017, Trump mocked Brzezinski on Twitter in 2017 for “bleeding badly from a face-lift” when she visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in December 2016.
Chief critic
Scarborough, who was 900 miles away in Washington on the day Klausutis died, responded to the president’s tweets on his show saying Trump didn’t understand the “pain” he caused those close to Klausutis. “I know you meant to be extraordinarily cruel to me by attacking me, by bringing up a conspiracy theory that has lived in the gutters of the internet for some time now,” he added. “But just like the Seth Rich conspiracy ‘murder’ that was pushed by your allies, you don’t understand the pain you cause.” Brzezinski called Trump a “sick person” and called on Twitter to take down the tweets in a message on-air.
Further reading
Twitter Must Cleanse the Trump Stain (New York Times
Husband of deceased Scarborough staffer asks Twitter to delete baseless Trump claims (Axios)
Florida family grieves as Trump spreads debunked conspiracy theory to attack MSNBC host (Washington Post)
Widower of late Joe Scarborough staffer seeks removal of Trump tweets that promote baseless conspiracy theory (Washington Post)
