“Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski blasted Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday, accusing her of “lying” from behind the White House podium while defending the president for sharing conspiracy theories about her co-host and husband Joe Scarborough.
During Tuesday’s briefing, McEnany was questioned on President Trump’s frequent suggestions, without basis or evidence, that Scarborough was involved in the death Lori Klausutis, a woman who worked in the former congressman’s congressional office. Klausutis died after fainting and hitting her head, but Trump has called the death a “murder.”
In a pair of tweets, Brzezinski wrote that McEnany had not told the truth when she claimed that Scarborough had joked about the death during an appearance on a radio show hosted by the late Don Imus.
“The Press Secretary is lying. IMUS made the callous joke in 2003 during a break and then repeated it on air. Joe was embarrassed and said, ‘What are you going to do?’ trying to move on to talk about the show. No lies can cover up the hatefulness of Donald Trump,” she said.
“Donald Trump has no decency and refuses to show a trace of humanity toward a grieving widower. No lies can deflect the awfulness of his behavior. History will judge harshly those who defend this cruelty and callousness,” she added.
McEnany claimed during Tuesday’s press conference that media scrutiny should be aimed at Scarborough over the issue of Klausutis’s death, and not Trump, who this week faced an emotional plea from Klausutis’s widower to cease spreading the conspiracy theory.
“There has been a constant barrage of falsehoods, half-truths, innuendo and conspiracy theories since the day she died … Because of this, I have struggled to move forward with my life,” Timothy Klausutis wrote to Trump in a letter.
Twitter has faced calls to remove the tweets from Trump suggesting Scarborough’s involvement in the baseless theory, but declined in a statement Tuesday.
“We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,” said a Twitter spokesperson.