Twitter will keep Trump tweets
Twitter said on Tuesday it would take no action at this time on tweets from U. S. President Donald Trump about the 2001 death of a former congressional staff member for Joe Scarborough, after her widower asked the company to remove them for furthering false claims.
In a letter to Twitter’s chief executive Jack Dorsey that was published by The New York Times, Timothy J. Klausutis asked that the company remove a tweet by Trump “alluding to the repeatedly debunked falsehood that my wife was murdered by her boss, former U.S. Rep. Joe Scarborough.”
“My request is simple: Please delete these tweets,” Timothy J. Klausutis wrote in his letter to Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey. “I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the president of the United States has taken something that does not belong to him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain.”
The letter was disclosed Tuesday in an opinion column in the Times by Kara Swisher entitled “Twitter Must Cleanse the Trump Stain.” It argues that Trump — who renewed his tweets about the case later Tuesday — is spreading a conspiracy theory that has been widely debunked and the company should remove the posts.
Trump’s tweets involve the death 19 years ago of Lori Kaye Klausutis, 28, and unfounded allegations that she was murdered by Scarborough when he was a lawmaker representing Florida in Congress and she was on his staff. Klausutis was found to have had an undisclosed heart condition and she fell and hit her head on her desk at work, her widower said.
Scarborough is now cohost of MSNBC’S Morning Joe program and a frequent Trump critic.
Trump again tweeted about the case Tuesday, as the widower’s letter circulated, appearing to suggest it would be up to law enforcement to make any decision on reopening the case.
Trump has repeatedly tweeted about the conspiracy theory to his millions of followers and others, including his son Donald Trump Jr., have retweeted the postings to their followers.
A Twitter spokesperson said the tweets would remain. Last year, Twitter said it would start labelling tweets from prominent politicians and government officials that broke its rules but that it deemed were in the public interest. The spokeswoman declined to say why Trump’s tweets did not fall within this policy.