Donald Trump is in deflection mode.  The coronavirus death toll is about to pass 100,000, but instead of using the holiday weekend to mourn those we have lost, or celebrate those who have served in the military, Trump zeroed in on a long-ago debunked conspiracy theory about Joe Scarborough, the MSNBC host who has been critical of how the president has handled the pandemic.

Here’s the background: A woman who worked for then-Congressman Joe Scarborough, Lori Klausutis died almost two decades ago as the result of an “undiagnosed heart condition” in Scarborough’s Florida office.  Scarborough was in Washington at the time, but that hasn’t stopped Trump, who has dredged up false accusations that Scarborough had some sinister role in her death, tweeting conspiracy theories. Now Klausutis’ widower is appealing directly to Twitter, asking CEO Jack Dorsey to remove the tweets. Part of the letter reads:

“I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because 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.”

Joe Scarborough responded to the letter on his show today saying, “What the Klausutis’, the entire family had to endure for 19 years, it is unspeakably cruel. Whether it’s the president or whether it’s people following the president. it is unspeakably cruel.” Watch above.

In an opinion column, New York Times reporter Kara Swisher wrote:

Mr. Klausutis deserves an answer from Mr. Dorsey, who has the unenviable task of sorting out what is perhaps unsortable, which is to say, the ugly heart of Twitter’s most famous customer. While sources close to the company said executives had been trying to figure out what to do over the weekend, the company has at this writing been silent about this latest controversy involving Mr. Trump’s appalling and rule-breaking Twitter habit.

And yet even after the letter from Timothy Klausutis, Trump continued to tweet about it today.

https://twitter.com/amandacarpenter/status/1265266263078682625

There is one Republican is speaking out, but where are the party’s other voices?

And Twitter released a statement Tuesday morning, but it sure doesn’t go far enough.

*This contains opinion and analysis