Twitter ‘sorry’ for pain caused by Trump tweeting conspiracy theory MSNBC host Joe Scarborough murdered a staffer
TWITTER has issued an extraordinary apology citing “pain” caused by President Donald Trump’s recent tweets about a woman who died in then-congressman Joe Scarborough’s office years ago.
The social media giant took the unprecedented step on Tuesday after the president repeatedly implied on Twitter that MSNBC host Scarborough was responsible for Lori Klausutis’s death in recent weeks.
Klausutis, 28, was found in Scarborough’s congressional office in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, in July 2001.
Twitter, which is often littered with graphic and offensive content it does not apologize for, issued the rare apology after receiving a letter from the dead woman’s husband.
“We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,” Twitter said in a statement on Tuesday.
“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.”
Last week, the woman’s husband, Timothy Kalusitis, wrote in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that his wife had an undiagnosed heart condition that led to her falling and hitting her head on a desk at work.
Kalusitis said Lori’s death has been “the single most painful thing that I have ever had to deal with” — and added he feels an obligation to protect her memory.
“My request is simple: Please delete these tweets,” Timothy Klausutis to Dorsey.
He then claimed Trump is a conspiracy theorist who is spreading “bile and misinformation” and “disparaging the memory” of his wife and their marriage.
Klausutis also believes that Trump’s tweets violate Twitter’s community rules and terms of service.
“An ordinary user like me would be banished,” Timothy Klausutis wrote in the letter.
Trump tweeted this month: “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!”
On Tuesday, Trump tweeted: “The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus.”
“In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing?”
The president continued: “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?”
Twitter has generally taken a hands-off approach to political leaders’ tweets coming from both sides of the spectrum, claiming that whoever publishing a tweet is accountable for the content.
The social media website modified those rules last year to say that world leaders “aren’t entirely” above the rules, and some tweets violating its policy could be slapped with warning labels.
The president has often published tweets considered outlandish or outrageous, but Twitter hasn’t commented on them before.
Trump has long-fought with Scarborough and has repeatedly tried to connect him to the death — even though Scarborough was in Washington, not Florida, at the time of Lori Klausutis’ death.
Trump has also asked via Twitter if NBC would fire the political talk show host based on the “unsolved mystery” years ago in Florida.
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“Investigate!” he tweeted in 2017.
Medical officials ruled years ago that Lori Klausutis, who had a heart condition and told friends hours earlier that she wasn’t feeling well, had fainted and hit her head.
Foul play was not suspected, and Scarborough has told the president to stop his baseless attacks.