The reliably conservative Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board criticized President Donald Trump in an editorial this morning, calling his murder allegations against former congressman and “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough “ugly even for him.”
“Donald Trump sometimes traffics in conspiracy theories — recall his innuendo in 2016 about Ted Cruz’s father and the JFK assassination — but his latest accusation against MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is ugly even for him,” the board wrote.
They continued: “Mr. Trump always hits back at critics, and Mr. Scarborough has called the President mentally ill, among other things. But suggesting that the talk-show host is implicated in the woman’s death isn’t political hardball. It’s a smear. Mr. Trump rightly denounces the lies spread about him in the Steele dossier, yet here he is trafficking in the same sort of trash.”
The board concludes that its editorial is not written with “any expectation that Mr. Trump will stop. Perhaps he even thinks this helps him politically, though we can’t imagine how. But Mr. Trump is debasing his office, and he’s hurting the country in doing so.”
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
The Wall Street Journal‘s condemnation comes after the president falsely accused Scarborough of murdering his former staffer for the second day in a row.
Writing on Twitter, the president claimed 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.â€
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. He knows what is happening!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
Trump’s tweets referred to the death of 28-year-old Lori Klausutis, a former intern of Scarborough’s who was found dead in Scarborough’s Fort Walton Beach office in Florida when he was a congressman. Her death was not considered suspicious, and medical examiners concluded she died from a head injury after a fall, passing out because of an undiagnosed heart condition.
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
