The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board chastised President Donald Trump on Wednesday over his “ugly” tweets about MSNBC host Joe Scarborough’s former congressional intern Lori Klausutis.
The president has repeatedly called for an investigation in Klausutis’ death, which drew criticism from Klausutis’ widower Tuesday. Klausutis died in 2001 from an apparent head injury while interning with Scarborough’s office. (RELATED: Here’s How Trump’s Tweets About Scarborough’s Dead Intern Could Backfire For Him In November)
“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,” the right-leaning Editorial Board wrote. “Mr. Trump rightly denounces the lies spread about him in the Steele dossier, yet here he is trafficking in the same sort of trash.”
Co-host Joe Scarborough speaks onstage during the 2017 Americares Airlift Benefit at Westchester County Airport on October 14, 2017 in Armonk, New York. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Americares)
The editorial board accused Trump of “hurting the country” and “debasing the office” of the presidency. (RELATED: Trump Claims He Has ‘Rattled’ Joe Scarborough With His Tweets)
“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.”
The president has been criticized by people on the left and the right for his implication that foul play was involved in Klausutis’ death. Scarborough called the implication “unspeakably cruel” Tuesday, while hosting “Morning Joe.”
Trump defended his comments Tuesday, tweeting that he was not the first person to promote the theory that Scarborough was involved in Klausutis’ death.
“The opening of a Cold Case against Psycho Joe Scarborough was not a Donald Trump original thought, this has been going on for years, long before I joined the chorus,” he said.