Trump allies desert him on Joe Scarborough conspiracy theory
- 4 years ago
Trump’s top allies desert him on baseless Joe Scarborough conspiracy theory
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Conservative pushback is building against Trump’s Scarborough conspiracy theory. As tellingly, his top allies won’t vouch for it.
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Pushback is building in conservative circles against President Trump’s baseless conspiracy theory about Joe Scarborough and the decades-old death of a former congressional aide.
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What might be as telling, though, is the radio silence on the topic from Trump’s most ardent allies.
Romney said in a tweet: “I know Joe Scarborough. Joe is a friend of mine. I don’t know T.J. Klausutis. Joe can weather vile, baseless accusations but T. J.? His heart is breaking. Enough already.”
Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican, also said Trump should stop.
“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,” she said.
But here’s the thing: These are all people who have been willing to call Trump out from time to time. Trump’s closest allies, by contrast, have been almost completely silent.
That also applies, tellingly, when it comes to vouching for Trump.
The silence has been particularly pronounced on Fox News. Nexis transcripts show a scattered few straight-news mentions in recent days of the back-and-forth over what Twitter should do.
Around the time this story was initially published, Fox’s Dana Perino pressed Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh on what Klausutis’s widower said, to which Murtaugh responded, “Certainly, we feel for the grieving family.
And it’s a terrible loss. ... But I’m not going to get out ahead of the president. He’s got this on-running feud with Joe Scarborough, and I think it’s plain to see for everybody.”
But hosts such as Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity haven’t really touched the story in recent days.
Hannity did bring it up briefly on his radio show last week, at which point former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly urged him to leave it alone:
Hannity has apparently taken that advice. In the week since then, according to transcripts, he has not mentioned Scarborough or Trump’s conspiracy theory on his TV show — despite apparently believing there’s somehow some validity to something involving the coroner.
Nor has the story appeared much on FoxNews.com. The site mentioned Trump’s claims in a story last week about Scarborough’s co-host and wife, Mika Brzezinski, trying to get Trump banned from Twitter.
It also wrote about Twitter’s response to Klausutis’s husband Tuesday. Apart from that, the only mention appears to be a clip of Fox radio host Guy Benson deriding Trump’s tweets on the matter.
That’s a contrast to other, more fringe sites which lifted up the Imus interview or at least passed along Trump’s tweets credulously.
If anything, the combination of the slow-building criticism and the unwillingness of Trump’s allies to amplify — much less vouch for — the claim should tell you how his party and base of support views this particular gambit.
If they thought it was legitimate or defensible, they would probably say so, but they haven’t been.
Apparently they hoped it would go away. But when not even a grieving widower can put a stop to it, that pretty strongly suggests it won’t. And that seems to be why we’re suddenly seeing pushback.
--bl--
Conservative pushback is building against Trump’s Scarborough conspiracy theory. As tellingly, his top allies won’t vouch for it.
--bl--
Pushback is building in conservative circles against President Trump’s baseless conspiracy theory about Joe Scarborough and the decades-old death of a former congressional aide.
--bl--
What might be as telling, though, is the radio silence on the topic from Trump’s most ardent allies.
Romney said in a tweet: “I know Joe Scarborough. Joe is a friend of mine. I don’t know T.J. Klausutis. Joe can weather vile, baseless accusations but T. J.? His heart is breaking. Enough already.”
Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican, also said Trump should stop.
“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,” she said.
But here’s the thing: These are all people who have been willing to call Trump out from time to time. Trump’s closest allies, by contrast, have been almost completely silent.
That also applies, tellingly, when it comes to vouching for Trump.
The silence has been particularly pronounced on Fox News. Nexis transcripts show a scattered few straight-news mentions in recent days of the back-and-forth over what Twitter should do.
Around the time this story was initially published, Fox’s Dana Perino pressed Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh on what Klausutis’s widower said, to which Murtaugh responded, “Certainly, we feel for the grieving family.
And it’s a terrible loss. ... But I’m not going to get out ahead of the president. He’s got this on-running feud with Joe Scarborough, and I think it’s plain to see for everybody.”
But hosts such as Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity haven’t really touched the story in recent days.
Hannity did bring it up briefly on his radio show last week, at which point former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly urged him to leave it alone:
Hannity has apparently taken that advice. In the week since then, according to transcripts, he has not mentioned Scarborough or Trump’s conspiracy theory on his TV show — despite apparently believing there’s somehow some validity to something involving the coroner.
Nor has the story appeared much on FoxNews.com. The site mentioned Trump’s claims in a story last week about Scarborough’s co-host and wife, Mika Brzezinski, trying to get Trump banned from Twitter.
It also wrote about Twitter’s response to Klausutis’s husband Tuesday. Apart from that, the only mention appears to be a clip of Fox radio host Guy Benson deriding Trump’s tweets on the matter.
That’s a contrast to other, more fringe sites which lifted up the Imus interview or at least passed along Trump’s tweets credulously.
If anything, the combination of the slow-building criticism and the unwillingness of Trump’s allies to amplify — much less vouch for — the claim should tell you how his party and base of support views this particular gambit.
If they thought it was legitimate or defensible, they would probably say so, but they haven’t been.
Apparently they hoped it would go away. But when not even a grieving widower can put a stop to it, that pretty strongly suggests it won’t. And that seems to be why we’re suddenly seeing pushback.