Politics

Mitt Romney Defends ‘Friend’ Scarborough From Trump Attacks

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William Davis Contributor
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Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney defended MSNBC host Joe Scarborough Wednesday from President Donald Trump’s accusations that he was involved in the death of former congressional intern Lori Klausutis.

“I know Joe Scarborough. Joe is a friend of mine. I don’t know T.J. Klausutis. Joe can weather vile, baseless accusations but T.J.? His heart is breaking. Enough already,” Romney tweeted. (RELATED: Trump Claims He Has ‘Rattled’ Joe Scarborough With Dead Intern Tweet)

Trump has repeatedly called for an investigation into Klausutis’ death, implying that foul play was involved. Klausutis died in 2001 at the age of 28 due to an apparent head injury. Her widower T.J. asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to have the president’s tweets taken down, accusing Trump of “disparaging the memory of my wife and our marriage.” Twitter declined to remove the tweets, but did add a fact check label to some of Trump’s other tweets, leading the president to accuse the social media giant of anti-conservative bias.

Trump has faced criticism from the right and the left for implying that Scarborough played a role in Klausutis’ death. The right-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial board took the president to task Wednesday, accusing him of “hurting the country” with his calls to investigate the MSNBC host.

“We don’t write this with any expectation that Mr. Trump will stop. Perhaps he even thinks this helps him politically, though we can’t imagine how,” the Editorial Board wrote. “But Mr. Trump is debasing his office, and he’s hurting the country in doing so.”