Trump’s slanderous attack on Joe Scarborough is incompatible with leadership

Nearly two decades ago, when Joe Scarborough was a conservative Republican member of Congress from Florida, his office suffered a tragedy. One of his staff, a 28-year-old woman, named Lori Klausutis, collapsed from a heart condition while working alone in his Fort Walton Beach, Florida, office.

As the medical examiner later reported, she hit her head in the process of fainting, and the blow killed her. When her body was found the following morning by a constituent arriving for an appointment — she never had the chance to lock up — there was no suspicion of foul play.

Unfortunately, in the minds of certain lunatics — especially disreputable, typically (but not always) anonymous online left-wingers itching to slander any available Republican politician — this became a hot new conspiracy theory. Scarborough, they theorized, must have been having an affair with the staffer in question, and he must have murdered her in order to cover it up. According to this tall tale, the controversy surrounding her death even forced Scarborough to leave Congress — so that just proves it, right?

This story is not just false, but verifiably so. It is also illogical and bizarre. For one thing, Scarborough wasn’t even in Florida when this incident occurred. He took six votes on the House floor the day Klausutis died — the first at 10:25 a.m. and the last at 7:09 p.m. The following morning, he participated in another vote at 10:10 a.m.

Lℇ✞✞u☪ℇ ⳨r∃Y

Article URL : https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/trumps-slanderous-attack-on-joe-scarborough-is-incompatible-with-leadership