President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday that he “rattled” MSNBC host Joe Scarborough with tweets calling for an investigation into the death of one of Scarborough’s former congressional interns.
“Psycho Joe Scarborough is rattled, not only by his bad ratings but all of the things and facts that are coming out on the internet about opening a Cold Case,” the president tweeted. “He knows what is happening!”
Psycho Joe Scarborough is rattled, not only by his bad ratings but all of the things and facts that are coming out on the internet about opening a Cold Case. He knows what is happening!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
Trump has repeatedly called for an investigation into the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, who died at the age of 28 due to an apparent head injury while working in Scarborough’s congressional office. Scarborough has ripped Trump’s tweets as “extremely cruel,” while Klausutis’ widower sent a letter Tuesday to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey calling on him to remove the president’s tweets. (RELATED: Here’s How Trump’s Tweets About Scarborough’s Dead Intern Could Backfire In November)
“My request is simple: Please delete these tweets,” Timothy Klausutis wrote. “The President’s tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered (without any evidence and contrary to the official autopsy) — is a violation of Twitter’s community rules and terms of service. 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.”
Twitter declined to take down the president’s tweets, but did place fact-check labels on some of his other posts. The president responded by accusing social media companies of anti-conservative bias, and threatened government intervention.
“We will strongly regulate, or close them down, before we can ever allow this to happen,” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
The president was criticized by the right-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial board Wednesday for his “smear” against Scarborough.
“Mr. Trump always hits back at critics, and Mr. Scarborough has called the President mentally ill, among other things. But suggesting that the talk-show host is implicated in the woman’s death isn’t political hardball. It’s a smear,” the article reads.