Donald Trump is on a Twitter tirade that has now entered its third full day. He’s been tweeting about a nonexistent “OBAMAGATE” conspiracy, demanding NBC fire Chuck Todd, attacking Democrats and the media in general, and so much more. Since Mother’s Day, as of this writing, he’s tweeted or retweeted 213 times.
In one of those tweets, he accused MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough of possibly murdering someone.
“When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so,” Trump wrote early Tuesday morning during the time Scarborough’s Morning Joe was airing. “Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!”
When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2020
This isn’t the first time Trump has questioned the “cold case” on Scarborough. He’s brought it up a few times in recent days, and he also tweeted about it back in 2017. It’s not clear why the conspiracy theory popped back up on his radar but it is, as you’d probably guess, completely baseless.
Trump appears to be alluding to an incident in 2001, during Scarborough’s time as a member of Congress, when Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old aide working in his office, died suddenly.
The last time Trump tried to drudge up the conspiracy, the Washington Post’s Lindsey Bever wrote,
But Klausutis’s death is not an unsolved mystery: Authorities determined 16 years ago that she died after losing consciousness from an abnormal heart rhythm and collapsed, striking her head. She was discovered in Scarborough’s office in Fort Walton Beach, lying on her back with her head near a desk, according to a 2001 police report.
The circumstances of Klausutis’s death on July 20, 2001, have prompted conspiracy theories — some of which appear to persist. But no foul play was suspected, and her death was ultimately ruled an accident by the medical examiner.
Scarborough responded on-air to Trump’s most recent tweet shortly after he posted it, calling his accusation “extraordinarily cruel.”
Her name was Lori Klausutis. She was 28. And her family deserves far better than the president and his minions using the tragedy of her death as a crude cudgel to attack a critic. It’s indecent and inhumane. https://t.co/C5OaEOrRA0
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 12, 2020
Remember what it was like to live in a world where the president accusing a cable news host of actual murder—not to mention dredging up the death of a young woman as a way to attack one of his critics—would be enough to get people’s attention, maybe stir some genuine outrage? Instead, this just blends in with all the other weird and terrible stuff Trump tweeted or did over the last three days (and the three years before that).
It is wild that the President used his Twitter account to accuse a journalist of murder (and not for the first time) and everyone just kinda goes on with their day.
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) May 12, 2020
A remarkable lack of self-awareness from Trump this morning as he implicitly ponders why he doesn’t have the same high sky approval ratings as governors in the midst of an insane twitter barrage that includes accusing folks of murder
— Sam Stein (@samstein) May 12, 2020
Given we know he projects, who did Trump murder? https://t.co/sV06Rxak9m
— rabia O’chaudry (@rabiasquared) May 12, 2020
(image: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
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