The Time Trump Baselessly Accused Joe Scarborough of Murder
Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and his four years in office contained so much daily weirdness, wackiness, and horror that the human brain couldn’t comprehend it all. As Trump gets close to the White House again, “That Happened” brings you the surreal moments you might have forgotten — or blocked from your memory.
Donald Trump has often marked Memorial Day in ways that suggest he may not fully embrace the meaning of the holiday, which commemorates those who died while serving in the U.S. military. In 2018, he used the holiday to promote himself:
Happy Memorial Day! Those who died for our great country would be very happy and proud at how well our country is doing today. Best economy in decades, lowest unemployment numbers for Blacks and Hispanics EVER (& women in 18years), rebuilding our Military and so much more. Nice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2018
And last year he honored service members who made the “ultimate sacrifice” alongside those who are fighting the “TERRORISTS, MISFITS AND LUNATIC THUGS WHO ARE WORKING FEVERISHLY FROM WITHIN TO OVERTURN AND DESTROY OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY.”
Incredibly, these bizarre posts aren’t Trump’s most appalling Memorial Day messaging. Back in 2020, Trump took some time out of his holiday weekend to not-so-subtly suggest that Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough murdered a staffer during his time as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives:
A lot of interest in this story about Psycho Joe Scarborough. So a young marathon runner just happened to faint in his office, hit her head on his desk, & die? I would think there is a lot more to this story than that? An affair? What about the so-called investigator? Read story! https://t.co/CjBXBXxoNS
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2020
Trump was alluding to the tragic death of Lori Klausutis, who was found dead in Scarborough’s Fort Walton Beach, Florida, congressional office in 2001. Trump first insinuated that Scarborough had something to do with it in this 2017 tweet:
So now that Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin? And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the “unsolved mystery” that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2017
But as the AP explained at the time, there was no “unsolved mystery”:
An autopsy revealed that Klausutis had an undiagnosed heart condition and a coroner concluded she passed out and hit her head as she fell. The coroner said the head injury caused the death, but she wasn’t struck by another person.
The death occurred a month after Scarborough announced he was leaving office. Scarborough was in Washington when Klausutis died.
Klausutis was 28, happily married, and working as a constituent services coordinator in Scarborough’s office when she died. Local officials said from the start that there was nothing suspicious about her death. But the story still sparked wild rumors and speculation, years before Trump entered politics. In 2020, the Washington Post attributed this to the political and media climate at the time of Klausutis’s death:
But Klausutis’s death occurred while the nation was caught up in speculation about the disappearance of Bureau of Prisons intern Chandra Levy and her ties to Rep. Gary Condit (D-Calif). Soon the stories merged in the public’s mind, with some labeling Scarborough the Republican Condit (who was never charged with any crime).
Posts on such sites as Truthout and the liberal Daily Kos all but accused Scarborough of murder. Filmmaker Michael Moore talked about registering the domain name “JoeScarboroughKilledHisIntern.com.” Rumors claimed her death had something to do with the 2000 election or 9/11 or that it had prompted Scarborough to resign from Congress two months afterward — although Scarborough had announced his resignation before her death. He married his second wife, a Jeb Bush fundraiser named Susan Waren, shortly after his September resignation took effect.
Trump loves conspiracy theories and hates his former friend Scarborough, so it makes sense that he eventually became the story’s most high-profile promoter. Though Trump’s allegations against the MSNBC host were widely debunked following his 2017 tweet, he started pushing the story aggressively in spring 2020. (It’s not like there was a raging pandemic that required his attention or anything.) He posted tweets referencing the “Florida Cold Case” and its connection to “Psycho Joe Scarborough” at least eight times in April and May of that year. For example:
I must admit that Lyin’ Brian Williams is, while dumber than hell, quite a bit smarter than Fake News @CNN “anchorman” Don Lemon, the “dumbest man on television”. Then you have Psycho Joe “What Ever Happened To Your Girlfriend?” Scarborough, another of the low I.Q. individuals!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 30, 2020
“Concast” should open up a long overdue Florida Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough. I know him and Crazy Mika well, used them beautifully in the last Election, dumped them nicely, and will state on the record that he is “nuts”. Besides, bad ratings! #OPENJOECOLDCASE
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2020
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
....about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing? Maybe or maybe not, but I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won’t bring them up now! Law enforcement eventually will?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
Soon, even a few elected Republicans and conservative outlets were calling on Trump to stop smearing Scarborough; the Washington Examiner said the president needed to stop spreading “vile slander” and the Wall Street Journal editorial board called the attacks “ugly even for him.” But Trump just kept tweeting.
Lori Klausutis’s family tried to make social-media companies rein Trump in. On May 21, 2020, her widower, Timothy Klausutis, sent then–Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey an emotional letter asking him to delete Trump’s tweets. He wrote that, “conspiracy theories, including most recently the President of the United States, continue to spread their bile and misinformation on your platform disparaging the memory of my wife and our marriage.”
Though a Twitter spokesperson acknowledged that Trump’s false statements were painful to Klausutis’s family, the company refused to take down the posts.
Twitter spokesperson: “We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family."
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) May 26, 2020
Facebook kept Trump’s posts up too, telling CNN: “We do not remove political speech solely because people may find it offensive, as this content understandably is to the family of Lori Klausutis and others. Speech from candidates and heads of state is among the most scrutinized content on our platform, which helps ensure people are held accountable for their words.”
But to this date, Trump hasn’t really been “held accountable” for spreading these appalling lies. During a May 26, 2020, White House press conference, Trump brushed aside Klausutis’s letter, saying of the family, “I’m sure that, ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it, and it’s a very serious situation.”
Trump even repeated his online suggestions that Scarborough might be a murderer as he spoke to reporters at the White House Rose Garden. Per a CNN transcript:
QUESTION: The woman who died, who you’re suggesting that Joe Scarborough was responsible —
TRUMP: Yes, a lot of people suggest that, and hopefully someday people are going to find out. Certainly, a very suspicious situation, very sad, very sad and very suspicious. Question, please?
Though Trump’s Twitter and Facebook accounts were suspended after the Capitol riot, they have now been reinstated.
Trump once tweeted that he saw Scarborough’s wife and co-host, Mika Brzezinski, “bleeding badly from a face-lift.” But Scarborough has said the murder accusations were the only thing that really “upset” them and that they “caused the family terrible pain.” In a 2021 Times Radio interview, Scarborough said he considered suing Trump but was told Trump was protected by presidential immunity.
“I think there may be a challenge there. I may sue him in the future,” Scarborough said. “I am going to go back to the lawyer after he leaves office and I’m going to make sure — because why should a president be immune from a lawsuit if he does something like that?”
Former US congressman and current MSNBC broadcaster Joe Scarborough says he may try to sue President Trump when he leaves office for calling him a murderer 12 times.
— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) January 16, 2021
In full on G&T from 10am Sunday ???? https://t.co/50SQDjxXjD@GloriaDePiero | @tnewtondunn | @JoeNBC pic.twitter.com/55gWGGk3uC
Scarborough has yet to sue, and Trump’s claims of presidential immunity are currently before the Supreme Court. While Trump has toned down his attacks on the Morning Joe hosts in recent years, he still subtly calls Scarborough a “killer” from time to time.