Anderson Cooper, 52, could no longer stay silent as Donald Trump, 73, continues to suggest former Florida congressman Joe Scarborough was involved in the death of his former aide in 2001. Trump’s insistence to barrage the MSNBC host of Morning Joe with accusations over Lori Klausutis‘ death, which was ruled an “accident” by the medical examiner, has even prompted Lori’s widower Timothy Klausutis to pen a letter “begging Twitter to delete” Trump’s tweets about Joe. A reporter directly told the POTUS this at a press conference, and Anderson shared this clip — including Trump’s defensive response — on Anderson Cooper 360° on May 26.
“What a little man. He’s just a little man. He’s the leader of the free world, and he is a little, little man,” Anderson gravely said after the clip played, in which Trump insisted that Joe’s former aide’s family would “ultimately” want “to get to the bottom” of Lori’s death. Trump even ventured to say that reinvestigating the death would be “a very good thing to do.”
As Twitter enables fact-checking on Trump's tweets, @AndersonCooper calls him "a little, little man."
He's "raising conspiracy theories…about a dead woman, though her family is begging Twitter to take them down…You start to think this is just normal…Man we are in trouble." pic.twitter.com/vSIFknxU65
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) May 27, 2020
“Spreading falsehoods about a dead woman, despite the pain and pleas of her husband and family. He doesn’t even have the guts to say he doesn’t care what they think,” Anderson continued. The CNN host accused the president of only being motivated by “political purposes” (Joe has long been vocal about his disapproval towards Trump).
Not only does Lori’s widower want Trump’s senseless accusations to stop, but Joe’s wife and co-host Mika Brzezinski as well. She slammed Trump as a “cruel, sick, disgusting person” for “falsely accusing [Joe] of murder” on the May 20 episode of Morning Joe. She has also petitioned for Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, to “take down” the president’s Twitter account.
When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2020
In recent weeks, Trump has resurfaced the death of Joe’s former aid on multiple occasions. He referred to the former congressman as “Psycho Joe ‘What Ever Happened To Your Girlfriend?’ Scarborough” via Twitter on April 29, and in an even less subtle tweet on May 12, wrote, “When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!”
Lori was 28 years old when she was found dead in Joe’s office nearly 19 years ago. “In my opinion, Lori Kaye Klausutis died as a result of an acute subdural hematoma [bleeding from head injury] which occurred as a result of closed head trauma sustained in a simple fall,” the medical examiner wrote in the 2001 report. The medical examiner added that the cause of the suspected fall seemed to be the result of “a cardiac arrhythmia [abnormal heart rate/rhythm] from floppy mitral valve disease.”