More on Trump’s lies about Joe Scarborough

Some of his media supporters know it’s wrong but few Republican politicians have spoken up. Shameful!

Joe Scarborough writes in Opinions: Lori deserves better. So does America. https://t.co/BlAlwE2Kz7
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 28, 2020

Some of President Trump's stalwart defenders in the media have recoiled at his baseless attacks on the MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, whom Trump has all but accused of killing a former staff member despite a total lack of evidencehttps://t.co/t5dDsjmg5E
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 27, 2020

Despite widower’s plea, Trump doubles down on conspiracy theory targeting cable news host. https://t.co/U3kZA3pZfa
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 27, 2020

Torturing the family of the dead for political gain. Classless. Soulless. Clueless. Tasteless. Pointless. Feckless. Hateful and @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/HrxNJzGCX3
— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) May 27, 2020

I checked out a conspiracy theory forum with 20K members to see how they're handling the Trump Scarborough accusations. The top post accuses Tim Klausutis of all kinds of crimes. This really appears to be headed to Sandy Hook/Seth Rich territory, thanks to the president.
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) May 27, 2020

We are now all the way up to three. Unsurprisingly, @GOPLeader chickened out. https://t.co/BueXxcPHTk
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) May 27, 2020

ZING … LIZ CHENEY to @scottwongDC and @pkcapitol: “I do think the president should stop tweeting about Joe Scarborough. We’re in the middle of a pandemic. He’s the commander in chief of this nation. And it’s causing great pain to the family of the young woman who died.”
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 27, 2020

President Trump's crazed Twitter rant on Joe Scarborough was vile and unworthy of his office. Some will undoubtedly shrug it off as Trump being Trump, but one could hardly be blamed for reading it and doubting his fitness to lead.
//Our editorial >> https://t.co/GaV5FHVEzL
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) May 27, 2020

How many other Republicans have undertaken this simple and basic act of decency? https://t.co/jxPeNYKiu9
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 27, 2020

“Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, pressed by reporters, offered no evidence to back up the president’s insinuations. Instead, she essentially justified them by saying that Mr. Scarborough had been critical of Mr. Trump.” https://t.co/X6n0Vf07Mk
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 27, 2020

If you want to hate Scarborough or me or any media figure because you think he (or we) are biased against Trump or something, that's your right. But don't follow the President's lead in making the death of a 28-year-old some sort of political football.https://t.co/e2jqGtpc7E
— Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) May 26, 2020

Trump’s disgraceful attacks on Twitter

He’s mad because they fact-checked him on one of his thousands of lies. Twitter is better than Facebook which has done nothing. They let Trump lie all the time.

Twitter has taken the unprecedented step of adding fact-check warnings to two of President Trump’s tweets. Why did Twitter act now, and how does it decide when to use such warnings?https://t.co/mUHEhZYxOB
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 28, 2020

Your regular reminder that much of the top performing content on social media is from right-wing media. If companies like Facebook are trying to “silence conservative voices,” they’re doing an incredibly lousy job. https://t.co/SNaELVDfmK
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 27, 2020

Twitter grants Trump every possible exception from its rules and offers a relatively mild corrective — a link to fact checks already on Twitter — and he responds as if they had deleted his tweets and terminated his account. https://t.co/DrbXlLwlII
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 27, 2020

Trump's latest lies about Twitter and voter fraud aren't just deranged. They're an *abuse of power.* Trump is threatening retribution to facilitate voter suppression *and* to discourage the sharing of concrete information that could save lives. New piece:https://t.co/A9qM2Zq7RY
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 27, 2020

He’s going to go through some things.

In which Kellyanne Conway gives marching orders to trolls to swarm, harass and shake down a private citizen in the name of free speech https://t.co/X5POj0qRbF
— Virginia Heffernan (@page88) May 27, 2020

Trump Campaign Manager:

"There are many reasons we pulled all our advertising from Twitter months ago, and clear political bias is one of them."#FactCheck: Twitter banned all political ads in 2019.

Even their response is a lie.
— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) May 27, 2020

FWIW, the first link to a story that I see when I click on Twitter's fact-check is to The Hill, which is owned by Jimmy Finkelstein, a longtime friend of Trump's. https://t.co/Qt8RMvf49v
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 26, 2020

I saw your threat just now.

What are you going to do to punish @Twitter for simply warning its users that you're lying?

Tell everyone. We're listening. https://t.co/iyRasCr4D2
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) May 26, 2020

Twitter is like Susan Collins. https://t.co/lx2Jaf2DyC
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) May 26, 2020

Trump continues terrible lies about Joe Scarborough

It’s very unfair to the family of the deceased woman. Twitter is wrong since they aren’t removing Trump’s disgusting tweets.

Despite pleas from widower, President Trump continues to pushes false conspiracy theory about dead congressional staffer @kaitlancollins reports pic.twitter.com/GTghMarpMd
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) May 26, 2020

The President tripling and quadrupling down on the Scarborough accusation – and just brushing off the wishes of the family – is just another reminder that he stop at nothing, no matter how awful, when he feels threatened.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 26, 2020

Trump Defends Conspiracy Attacks on Joe Scarborough, Bizarrely Suggests Lori Klausutis' Family Agrees With Him (They Do Not) https://t.co/SefHUlgLeb
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) May 26, 2020

The president says he’s seen the letter from the widower of the woman who worked for Scarborough asking him to stop talking about his late wife. The president replies he’s sure the widower wants to “get to the bottom” of what happened.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 26, 2020

They already got to the bottom. She died from medical issues. Trump is disgraceful.

Twitter statement re: Trump's tweets about Lori Klausutis: "We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements… are causing the family." Changes are in the works to "expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward" pic.twitter.com/JxiYmaYYL4
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 26, 2020

This is lame. Twitter should do something now, not in the future!

“Please delete those tweets,” the widower begged in a letter last week to Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey. “My wife deserves better.” https://t.co/gShidk7VmS
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) May 26, 2020

"I do know that our hearts are with Lori's family at this time.”
–Kayleigh McEnany
What I know is that Donald Trump has given not a moment’s thought to the family of Lori Klausutis at this time.
What I also do not know is who gave McEnany permission to call Mrs. Klausutis, Lori.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 26, 2020

This controversy over the president's repugnant tweets about a dead woman shouldn't just focus on Twitter's responsibility. What about Republican leaders, White House aides, Trump's family members – where's the decency? pic.twitter.com/kCm04fxpD3
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 26, 2020

No word from Republicans. They know Trump will attack them, too.

The filth coming out of Trump's twitter account is a national disgrace. https://t.co/9bIgyLSlCL
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 26, 2020

You can dislike/complain/criticize an anchor's coverage without accusing them of murder and causing immense pain for someone's family.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 26, 2020

She is 100% correct. Collins has been doing a great job asking questions of Trump.

A lot of heat on Twitter this morning for allowing Trump to push this heinous conspiracy theory about Scarborough, but also worth noting: Trump's tweets have also been cross-posted to Facebook as well.
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 26, 2020

Does any WH employee want to defend this behavior?@KellyannePolls?@PressSec?@MarkMeadows? pic.twitter.com/bjZgl1TRQ8
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) May 26, 2020

McElhany did defend Trump.

T.J. Klausutis to @Jack: "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." He wants Twitter to delete Trump's tweets accusing @JoeNBC of murder https://t.co/aCqCLgXOAJ
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 26, 2020

McEnany defends Trump’s baseless theory about Scarborough being involved with a murder of a former aide 19 years ago. Brings up Scarborough’s past comments and says: “It’s Joe Scarborough who has to answer these questions.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 26, 2020

Why is the president accusing someone of possible murder and the family is pleading with the president to stop, @PressSec is asked. She says the president said it was "not an original Trump thought."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 26, 2020

New: Despite an emotional plea from widower of Lori Klausutis to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the company will *not* remove tweets by President Trump insinuating without basis that Joe Scarborough was responsible for Klausutis’ death. @donie reporting.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) May 26, 2020

Trump took the tragic death of a young woman, Lori Klausutis, and has tried to exploit it for political gain in the most disgusting way imaginable. This letter from her husband to @jack asking him to delete Trump’s sick tweets is a heart-wrenching must read. pic.twitter.com/Qlk5NY9yx3
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) May 26, 2020

Just a note to the people at home. If *you* accuse an innocent man of murder, you will probably lose your house in the ensuing defamation suit. Trump is not using his American right of "free speech." He is abusing a uniquely presidential immunity from defamation action. https://t.co/NVuGuhga09
— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 26, 2020

Trump’s endless lies

Trump has now turned dishonest subtext about California into a flat lie, saying, "People that aren't citizens, illegals — anybody that walks in California is going to get a ballot." Ballots are being sent to registered voters, not anybody; non-citizens can't vote.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 26, 2020

The president keeps escalating his false claims about mail in voting. What evidence is there that “mail boxes will be robbed?” What does that even mean? And ballots are being sent to registered voters, not “anyone living in the state.” https://t.co/4aRrOVz0NW
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) May 26, 2020

In addition to a) misspelling Conor b) misspelling Lamb c) going after a veteran on Memorial Day as an "American fraud," the president d) falsely claimed Lamb voted for Pelosi as speaker. Lamb kept his promise not to do so, voting instead for Joe Kennedy. pic.twitter.com/bkPgN87DIc
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 25, 2020

Trump constantly says he built the best economy in history and no journalists call him on this lie in real time. It just doesn't happen. So he keeps repeating it. Here is the truth. Please share this with a journalist.https://t.co/9eHN7QrYa0
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) May 25, 2020

Trump lies about the most trivial things. He also played golf yesterday and there's photos! https://t.co/pM9s40X5n3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 25, 2020

In a Friday speech to vets, Trump delivered the falsest version of his ever-escalating lie about Pelosi's Feb. Chinatown trip. She urged people to shop at Asian-American businesses; she didn't talk about travel from China, much less say it's cool for infected people to fly in. pic.twitter.com/5VxNmWZoNu
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 24, 2020

It’s sort of impressive that Trump would bash Fox polling as fake in a tweet following one where he shared a fake poll number. https://t.co/2zKwOcv5Sd
— Philip Bump (@pbump) May 23, 2020

Here's my weekly video on the president's dishonesty, featuring his new nonsense about Michigan voting and the return of his imaginary Michigan award: pic.twitter.com/tXrAyqoaqo
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 23, 2020

Here’s the president bantering with himself about an approval rating number he made up. Sane stuff. pic.twitter.com/bHFTusg5W1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 23, 2020

The good news: I've finished fact checking a 7-week backlog of the president's false claims.

The bad news: It took so long that I have a new 3-week backlog.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 22, 2020

Trump lies that "we'll always protect you on pre-existing conditions, much more so than the Democrats." Democrats got these protections created, in Obamacare, and have fought to save them; Trump and Republicans have tried/are trying to weaken them/entirely eliminate the law.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 26, 2020

Trump lie: "In California, the governor sent …millions of ballots all over the state, millions. To anybody. To anybody. People that aren't citizens, illegals, anybody that walks."

California SoS website: "All registered voters in California will receive a vote-by-mail ballot."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 26, 2020

Obamagate is nonsense

Trump can’t even say what it is. He’s just trying to distract us from his failures.

I've been searching for the right modifier for "incompetence" to succinctly, accurately describe Trump's peculiar brand. I think @michelleinbklyn found it. "Savage." https://t.co/lI128fPoe8
— Francis Wilkinson (@fdwilkinson) May 15, 2020

Memo to news organizations. Until @realDonaldTrump can articulate the crimes committed by Obama, please can we stop covering this like a crime has been committed. There is nothing more to say until there's evidence. So far it's just a bunch of people doing their jobs.
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) May 15, 2020

—@danabrams: “Based on what we know today, this Obamagate theory is 100 percent bullshit… There isn’t an iota of evidence thus far to implicate President Obama or even any member of his inner circle, for that matter, in a crime or even wrongdoing" https://t.co/5QzHxhBqCh
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 15, 2020

With coverage of the “Obamagate” charade, mainstream media outlets are still privileging Trump’s lies https://t.co/8oCwaFckxM
— Media Matters (@mmfa) May 15, 2020

Trump’s latest conspiracy gambit looks even more desperate than usual. https://t.co/p92El0hyTx
— Slate (@Slate) May 15, 2020

REPORTER: The president said people should be jailed as part of Obamagate

McENANY: I never said that. Those are your words, not mine

(The whole point was that Trump said it.) pic.twitter.com/HF8XSlxIW2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 15, 2020

Trump’s playbook on ‘Obamagate’ is extremely — and dubiously — familiarhttps://t.co/xBlzZhrH93
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) May 15, 2020

1/ 'Trump & Barr can be counted on to run the same playbook as they have before –a kernel of actual misconduct will be distorted by the Trump team and their congressional and media allies to make it look like an array of other activities that were actually legitimate appear
— Todd Gitlin (@toddgitlin) May 15, 2020

Seven days of "Obamagate": How a Flynn theory became central to the Trump reelection campaign https://t.co/vLyNwyNHc8 By @PhilipRucker, @mattzap, @costareports, and me
— Shane Harris (@shaneharris) May 15, 2020

"The point of 'Obamagate' is to try to recapture the force that propelled Trump to political prominence—questioning the legitimacy of the first black president," writes @GrahamDavidA. https://t.co/am3XZjjuKE
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) May 15, 2020

Opinion: "I didn’t want to give one ounce of breath or attention to this" says MSNBC’s Ruhle on "Obamagate" farce https://t.co/wku9cGoeIM
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 15, 2020

Trump lies about the PPE stockpile

Republican emphasis on budget cuts prevented Obama from stockpiling more.

EG about 90 minutes before @USATODAY posted its dodgy correction, @propublica posted this detailed story about how the overseeing subcommitee of the House Appropriations Committee again & again refused stockpiling requests https://t.co/Bs1RZCP7A8
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 4, 2020

Trump in Pennsylvania repeats his sweeping generalization about a "depleted" stockpile of pandemic supplies he inherited. Here are the facts: https://t.co/wHkdgwwAw8
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) May 14, 2020

"Barack Obama’s efforts to replenish America’s stockpile of protective equipment for healthcare workers were repeatedly blocked by Republican lawmakers, an investigation has found"https://t.co/Wgf4MMYvui
— Andrea Chalupa (@AndreaChalupa) May 13, 2020

NBC Fact check: Trump falsely claims Obama left him 'nothing' in the national stockpile.

"When we left, there was a pandemic plan," said one ex-Obama official. "There was a checklist about where you're supposed to do when. All of that stuff was in place."https://t.co/ak22qm6r4t
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 10, 2020

Trump lies about Russia

Putin said in Helsinki that Russia wanted Trump to win.

This is a total lie.

US intelligence agencies, the Senate intel committee reports are consistent about this.

Russian and Putin wanted to Trump to win, and helped him him. Trump accepted the help. Every single day in the final month of the campaign. https://t.co/wfzeA1C2Fm
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) May 14, 2020

Trump lies update 5/12/20

The lies are endless.

Been thinking a lot again about Trump and the 'firehose of falsehood' — see this piece of ours from back in 2018, which almost seems quaint compared with what's happening now amid mass death and staggering economic destruction https://t.co/1ja79YgP5I
— Mark Follman (@markfollman) May 16, 2020

"Many of the 18,000 false and misleading claims in our Trump database feature overheated rhetoric. Few of them rise to these vicious heights."https://t.co/nQWfdZBqx5
— Peter Wehner (@Peter_Wehner) May 13, 2020

18,000 lies and misleading claims from Donald Trump. He’s accelerated his pace during the worst US crisis since WWII. But his shameless defenders still drag out their fainting couches in service of their practiced and pathetic anti-anti Trump poses. https://t.co/ezV9vf54V5
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) May 12, 2020

Trump just says the models were wrong where the US is concerned. Fact checking him is pointless, but that’s a big one.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 11, 2020

I'm going to do a weekly video fact-checking some of the most important/interesting/weird false claims from Trump. Here's the first try. https://t.co/yvUJowaJHK
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 10, 2020

Even as the USA is on track to have 10x more deaths under covid-19 than H1N1 swine flu, Trump persists in uttering this falsehood. Our factcheck –> https://t.co/kVIQZQdRl7 https://t.co/Rh63cyqCH2
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 10, 2020

Trump, who has repeatedly boasted about how great he was at baseball in high school and how he could totally have gone pro if he’d wanted to, actually pretty much sucked at ithttps://t.co/j1W2Nqr6tE
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 9, 2020

On ABC today, Trump made a false allegation against Fauci and other medical advisers. He said he restricted travel from China "against [the advice of] many people, including Anthony Fauci … the doctors, and many other people. They said don’t ban China, it’s going to blow over."
— Will Saletan (@saletan) May 6, 2020

Trump lies at his town hall at the Lincoln Memorial

He used the Lincoln Memorial to spread lies and for political reasons. It was disgraceful. I wonder if Biden would be allowed to have a town hall there?

Trump wanted to have his Fox town hall inside the Lincoln Memorial. Events in the hallowed space are prohibited. So Interior Secretary David Bernhardt issued an order granting an exception. @katierogers https://t.co/9lI9AxzCue
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) May 4, 2020

Here's a fact check of just some of the president's false and misleading claims at the Lincoln Memorial with Fox News. There were too many to do all of them on a Sunday night. With @tarasubramaniam, @MarshallCohen, @stark_talk: https://t.co/vI9XMKTX57
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 4, 2020

Even by Trump’s historically low standards, the town hall on reopening the nation’s economy featured some astounding falsehoods https://t.co/2FNrEAP20n
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) May 4, 2020

Citing the "extraordinary crisis" of the coronavirus, Trump's interior secretary relaxed the rules so Trump could hold a Fox News town hall at the Lincoln Memorial. https://t.co/dMjDtqQLUZ
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 5, 2020

Yesterday, President Trump turned a town hall that was centered on the coronavirus pandemic into an appeal for his reelection https://t.co/6ppDoUCWNv
— POLITICO (@politico) May 4, 2020

In the last year, both the left and the right have been eager to claim the Lincoln Memorial and its symbolic backdrop.

That's not a new American tradition — the memorial has a long history of allowing Americans to approach from all directions.https://t.co/qvngCbIUcV
— POLITICO (@politico) July 5, 2020