President Donald Trump has repeated a debunked conspiracy theory that falsely claims Scarborough, an MSNBC host, in 2001 murdered a woman, Lori Klausutis, who worked in his office when he was a Florida congressman. Despite pleas from Klausutis’ widower, T.J. Klausutis, to cease the online attacks and despite no evidence of wrongdoing by Scarborough, Trump has persisted, prompting Cheney to speak out.
“I think that we’re in the middle of a pandemic, he’s the commander-in-chief of this nation and it’s causing great pain to the family of the young woman who died,” the Wyoming lawmaker told reporters, pivoting from the question posed to her about government officials wearing masks to instead address Trump’s online behavior. “I would urge him to stop it.”
T.J. Klausutis’ heartfelt plea to Twitter to remove Trump’s tweets has so far been unsuccessful. The death of Klausutis was ruled accidental from an undiagnosed heart condition, a fact that the president continues to ignore. In addition, Scarborough was in Washington, D.C., when her death occurred in Florida.
While the rebuke from Cheney, conference chair of House Republicans, stands out from nearly all of her GOP colleagues, she is not alone. At least three other Republicans have spoken out publicly to urge the president to stop his Twitter tirades against Scarborough, co-host of Morning Joe who often criticizes Trump.
“I know Joe Scarborough. Joe is a friend of mine. I don’t know T.J. Klausutis. Joe can weather vile, baseless accusations but T.J.?” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning. “His heart is breaking. Enough already.”
Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) labeled Trump’s tweets as a “Completely unfounded conspiracy” in a tweet of his own. “Just stop. Stop spreading it, stop creating paranoia. It will destroy us.”
Representative Peter King (R-N.Y.), a longtime lawmaker who served with Scarborough, called the assertions against him “out of bounds… There’s no evidence. We’ll see how far it goes or how far it lasts. To me, I wouldn’t do it. Let’s put it that way.”
But other Republican lawmakers have so far been mum, refusing to rebuff the president’s assertions. Flanked by Cheney just minutes before her off-the-cuff remarks to reporters, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) declined to address the murder conspiracy touted by Trump.
“I was not here with Joe Scarborough,” McCarthy told reporters. Scarborough served three consecutive two-year House terms from 1995-2001. “I don’t quite know about the subject itself. I don’t know the subject well.”
Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a close ally to Trump, backed up the president’s overall skepticism of the case. He pushed the conspiracy theory that the medical examiner doctored the autopsy report to help Scarborough.
“In Northwest Florida, at the time, there was a lot of focus on that medical examiner, and it’s not something that I’ve seen in a lot of the more recent discussion of those facts,” Gaetz said.
Although he once friends with Scarborough and his wife and co-host, Mika Brzezinski, Trump’s relationship with the T.V. duo has soured since he took office. The president has knocked Brzezinski twice since becoming president about a rumored “facelift” that was poorly done and left her “bleeding.” Meanwhile, the couple often ridicules Trump’s rhetoric, demeanor and policies on their show that airs weekday morning from 6-9.
Most recently, Trump has relentlessly attacked “Psycho Joe Scarborough” over the baseless theory that he played a role in his former staffer’s death, even as the pandemic’s death toll in the U.S. crept toward 100,000 people. The president first referenced the conspiracy in a November 2017 tweet but has ratcheted up his rhetoric this month to essentially outright accuse the T.V. host of murder. Since May 4, Trump has referenced the “cold case” of Klausutis at least eight times.
“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,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. “He knows what is happening!”
Earlier this week, Trump tweeted the suggestion, without evidence, that Scarborough was having an “affair” with Klausutis. Trump went on to inaccurately describe the facts of her case, including that she was “a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die?”
In reality, the medical examiner determined Klausutis fainted from an undiagnosed heart condition and fell, resulting in her head hitting a desk. There is no “cold case”—despite Trump’s repeated allegations—because Klausutis’ death was ruled accidental. Neither charges nor arrests were ever made.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday defended Trump’s tweets. She suggested the conspiracy theory was Scarborough’s own doing because the situation was referenced with Scarborough on a radio show in 2003.
“I would note that the president said this morning that this is not an original Trump thought, and it is not,” McEnany told reporters. “It’s Joe Scarborough who has to answer these questions.”
This story was updated to include comments from Reps. Gaetz and King.
