The country is pretty evenly split politically. In 2016, President Trump got 62.9 million votes while Hillary Clinton got 65.8 million. That’s a 2.2% split.
But it’s clear that a lot of Americans wish Trump wouldn’t tweet so much. And for good reason.
Trump is the president of the United States, often considered the most powerful man in the world. With that job comes a slew of responsibilities — he’s got to be commander in chief and consoler in chief as he runs the world’s largest economy. Plus, every word he says is scrutinized, especially by political pundits in U.S. media.
But Trump has gone too far of late. In a series of posts on Twitter, the president has suggested that MSNBC morning host Joe Scarborough could well be a murderer.
“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!” Trump tweeted May 12.
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
He’s kept up the attacks ever since. “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!” he wrote Wednesday on Twitter.
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
The tweets refer to a conspiracy theory about Scarborough being responsible for the death of Lori Klausutis, who worked in the former lawmaker’s Florida district office. The 28-year-old intern was found dead in Scarborough’s Fort Walton Beach office and the state’s medical examiner ruled the death accidental, saying Klausutis passed out because of an undiagnosed heart condition and hit her head on a desk.
But Trump has pushed the theory that Klausutis was murdered by Scarborough.
“A lot of people suggest that,” Trump said late Tuesday afternoon in the White House Rose Garden. “And hopefully someday people are going to find out,” he continued, calling it a “very suspicious situation.”
So, you have the President of the United States pushing a conspiracy that one of his longtime foes murdered a young intern with whom he was having an affair. Not very presidential.
Lori’s husband, Timothy Klausutis, sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asking for the company to remove tweets from the social media site.
“My request is simple: Please delete these tweets,” Klausutis wrote. “I’m a research engineer and not a lawyer, but reviewed all of Twitter’s rules and terms of service. The President’s tweet that suggests that Lori was murdered without 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.”
But Dorsey didn’t remove the tweets, maintaining that tweets by a president are inherently newsworthy.
Trump’s claims have forced his fairly new press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, to defend his conspiratorial claims.
“Why is the President making these unfounded allegations? I mean, this is — this is pretty nuts, isn’t it? The President is accusing somebody of possible murder? The family is pleading with the President to please stop unfounded conspiracy theories. Why is he doing it?” a reporter asked on Tuesday.
“Well, you know, I would note that the President said this morning that this is not an original Trump thought, and it is not,” Trump’s press secretary replied. “In fact, in 2003, on Don Imus’s show, it was Don Imus and Joe Scarborough that joked about killing an intern — joked and laughed about it. So that was, I’m sure, pretty hurtful to Lori’s family. And Joe Scarborough himself brought this up with Don Imus, and Joe Scarborough, himself, can answer it.”
McEnany then said Scarborough and wife and co-host of his MSNBC show have made a bunch of phony allegations. “They’ve made false accusations that I won’t go through — that I would not say from this podium — against the President of the United States,” she said.
But is the argument that because a critic makes false accusations about the president, the president can insinuate that the critic murdered an intern in cold blood?
An awful lot of people who voted for Trump in 2016 were really voting against Clinton. Trump will need those voters in November if he wants to return to the White House. But a lot of them are getting sick of his tweets.
*Joseph Curl ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2014 and covered the White House for a dozen years. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter at @JosephCurl.