Presidential Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany sparred with ABC News television reporter Jonathan Karl at Tuesday’s White House daily press briefing over President Donald Trump’s tweets suggesting police re-examine the 2001 death of a woman who was an intern for MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough when he was a congressman.
Karl questioned McEnany on the tweets, calling them “unfounded allegations.”
“I mean, this is pretty nuts, isn’t it? The president’s accusing somebody of possible murder,” Karl said. “The family is pleading with the president to please stop unfounded conspiracy theories. Why is he doing that?”
McEnany replied by pointing to a 2003 interview Scarborough did with radio shock jock Don Imus, who, during the exchange, said: “I asked you why you aren’t in Congress. You said because you had sex with an intern and then you had to kill her.”
Scarborough replied: “Yeah…well, what are you going to do?”
The 57-year-old Scarborough won four terms in the House as a Republican from Florida’s 1st Congressional District before announcing in May 2001, five months into his final term, that he intended to resign to spend more time with his children.
In July 2001, 29-year-old Lori Klausutis was found dead in Scarborough’s Fort Walton Beach, Florida, congressional office from a head injury. It was ruled an accident.
Scarborough clashed with liberal filmmaker Michael Moore over Klausutis’ death in 2004 and others have suggested foul play.
Scarborough and his MSNBC “Morning Joe” show co-host Mika Brzezinski have been fierce Trump critics and frequently trade insults with the president.
Karl referenced a letter by Klausutis’ spouse, Timothy Klausutis, who wrote to Twitter asking the tweets be removed.
Twitter’s refusal and Trump’s latest tweet on the Klausutis issue Tuesday apparently sparked Karl’s line of questioning, which include calling the series of tweets “a false conspiracy theory.”
“The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought,” Trump tweeted. “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...”
During the exchange with Karl, McEnany also criticized Brzezinski for her insults aimed at Trump.
“Mika accused the president of being responsible for 100,000 deaths in this country,” she said referring to the number of COVID-19 deaths. “That’s incredibly irresponsible. They’ve dragged his family through the mud, they’ve made false accusations that I won’t go through, that I would not say from this podium, against the President of the United States, and they should be held to account.”
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