GOP lawmaker calls on Trump to stop promoting Scarborough conspiracy theory: ‘It will destroy us’

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) called on President Trump to stop promoting the “completely unfounded conspiracy” theory regarding the death of an intern for MSNBC “Morning Joe” anchor Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida.

The president on Sunday morning urged his followers in a tweet to read an article from conservative website True Pundit, which claimed that evidence showed foul play in the death of Lori Klausutis, 28, in 2001.

“Just stop,” Kinzinger responded said. “Stop spreading it, stop creating paranoia. It will destroy us.”

Completely unfounded conspiracy. Just stop. Stop spreading it, stop creating paranoia. It will destroy us. https://t.co/XgDl6LmANb

— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) May 24, 2020

On Saturday, the president also tweeted out a story about his calls for further investigations into Klausutis’s death, which a local medical examiner ruled accidental. 

Klausutis was found dead in Scarborough’s district office in 2001. A medical examiner determined she had collapsed because of an undiagnosed heart condition and struck her head in the fall.

Trump has previously promoted the conspiracy theory that Scarborough was involved in the death, including earlier this month when he requested Comcast, which owns NBC Universal, to investigate the case.

The MSNBC host, who frequently critiques the president, responded to that tweet on his show, saying Trump was dragging Klausutis’s family through the mud. 

Scarborough’s wife and co-host, Mika Brzezinski, tweeted last week that she was going to speak to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey about getting the president banned from the platform in an apparent reaction to Trump’s tweets about her husband.

Trump often appeared on “Morning Joe” in 2015 and 2016 before he and the hosts became involved in a feud.

Kinzinger has condemned Trump’s rhetoric in interviews but had said he backs the president and has voted in line with him 93.3 percent of the time throughout his career, according to FiveThirtyEight.