Trump keeps falsely accusing Joe Scarborough of murder, and it's long past weird

(Image credit: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

last updated 26 May 2020

A 28-year-old staffer in a local Florida congressional office of Joe Scarborough, then a Republican congressman, died at work in 2001, fatally hitting her head on a desk after fainting due to an undiagnosed "floppy" heart valve, the medical examiner ruled at the time. Local officials never suspected foul play in the death of Lori Klausutis, and Scarborough himself was 900 miles away in Washington, but Trump resumed baselessly accusing him of murder over the weekend, The Washington Post recounts.

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It was disturbing when Trump latched onto the false accusation in 2017, and it's making even some media allies uncomfortable now.

Scarborough, an MSNBC morning political talk show host, was friendly with Trump during and before the election but has since become a critic. That's one possible reason Trump is urging his followers to "keep digging, use forensic geniuses!"

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Whatever Trump's motive, Klausutis had a family and a husband who struggled with her death then and are forced to relive it again, the Post reports. "Trump's tweets offer a reminder of the remarkable nature of the Trump era — that a sitting president can traffic in incendiary and false allegations while the political world around him remains largely silent, accustomed to Trump's modern-day definition of presidential behavior. As with many such eruptions from the White House, there will probably be little if any consequence beyond, in this case, the collateral suffering of a private family in Florida. A White House spokesman declined to comment." Read more at The Washington Post.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.