Trump condemned by widower of ex-Joe Scarborough aide Lori Klausutis after president pushes false conspiracy theory that MSNBC host murdered her
The widower of former Joe Scarborough aide Lori Klausutis has hit out at Donald Trump for spreading baseless conspiracy theories about the circumstances surrounding his late wife's death in 2001, branding the president "inhuman".
T.J. Klausutis, an Air Force engineer, told Yahoo News that he and his family had been deeply hurt and upset by Mr Trump's repeated decision to advance unfounded claims that Mr Scarborough, who now works as an MSNBC host, murdered Ms Klausutis.
A coroner ruled that 28-year-old died accidentially. A heart condition caused her to faint and hit her head while working Mr Scarborough's Florida office. It was later revealed that the former Republican lawmaker, 57, was 800 miles away in Washington at the time of his former staffer's death.
“It got to the point that I literally could not stomach this,” Mr Klausutis told Yahoo. “I’ll use the term ‘suffering,’ quite honestly. And nobody, and I mean nobody, should have to be used in such a fashion. ... It’s just inhuman.”
Mr Klausutis was speaking out for the first time since he wrote to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in May asking the social media firm to remove a tweet by the president in which he repeated the false claims, first promoted Mr Scarborough's left wing oppenents.
"My request is simple: Please delete these tweets," Timothy J. Klausutis wrote at the time.
"I'm asking you to intervene in this instance because the president of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him - the memory of my dead wife - and perverted it for perceived political gain," Mr Klausutis told Mr Dorsey in the letter, first reported by the New York Times. "My wife deserves better."
The president had tweeted the following on 12 May: “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!”
But Twitter refused to remove the offending tweet. The firm did not directly reference Mr Klausutis's letter, but said it was "deeply sorry" about the pain caused by the president's statements.
"We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family," a spokesperson said.
The statement added: "We've been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly."
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