Widower asks Twitter to delete Trump's 'horrifying' lies about wife's death

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/may/26/lori-klausutis-husband-asks-twitter-delete-trump-joe-scarborough-smears-death

The husband of a woman whose 2001 death Donald Trump has repeatedly used for a political smear has demanded that Twitter take down tweets in which the president spreads the “horrifying” lie that the woman was murdered.

 

In a letter to Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey published on Tuesday by the New York Times, Timothy Klausutis made a heartfelt plea: “Please delete those tweets … My wife deserves better.”

Twitter said it would not delete the tweets.

Trump has spread the pernicious lie about the death of Lori Klausutis as a means of attacking a television host, Joe Scarborough of MSNBC. With his wife, Mika Brzezinski, Scarborough frequently criticizes Trump on the Morning Joe program. Trump has also attacked Brzezinski in brutally personal terms.

But in a statement on Tuesday morning, a spokesperson said the company would not remove the president’s tweets.

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“We are deeply sorry about the pain these statements, and the attention they are drawing, are causing the family,” the spokesperson said.
“We’ve been working to expand existing product features and policies so we can more effectively address things like this going forward, and we hope to have those changes in place shortly.”