Per his reading of Twitter’s terms of service, he said, other users would be banned for tweets like Trump’s.
The widower of a woman whose 2001 death has become fodder for baseless conspiracy theories spread by President Donald Trump is appealing directly to the head of Twitter to take down the president‘s tweets.
“I’m asking you to intervene in this instance because the President of the United States has taken something that does not belong him — the memory of my dead wife — and perverted it for perceived political gain,” Timothy J. Klausutis wrote in a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, which was dated last week but gained attention Tuesday when the New York Times’ Kara Swisher published it in an op-ed.
Klausutis’ late wife, Lori, died at age 28 from a fall precipitated by an undiagnosed heart condition, as confirmed by the medical examiner and police. Nineteen years later, her death is making headlines because of her employer at the time: then-Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.). She was working in a Florida office, while Scarborough was in Washington at the time of her death.
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Klausutis also wrote of the enduring pain his wife’s loved ones feel over her early death, and how the conspiracy theories have made it harder for them to move on.
“I have mourned my wife every day since her passing. I have tried to honor her memory and our marriage,” he wrote. “As her husband, I feel that one of my marital obligations is to protect her memory as I would have protected her in life.”
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- Discussion
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The widower of a woman whose 2001 death has become fodder for baseless conspiracy theories spread by President Trump is appealing directly to the head of Twitter to take down the president‘s tweetshttps://t.co/14PpcFp0Rq
— POLITICO (@politico) May 26, 2020
This letter is very powerful: pic.twitter.com/aTSMfCzkwl
— Del Quentin Wilber (@DelWilber) May 26, 2020
it’s important to note that every single pundit who’s ever written a “I don’t agree with his style or vulagarity but on policy he’s not bad” take is today morally responsible for the president digitally violating the corpse of a private widower who’s begged for him to stop
— kilgore trout, potato thief (@KT_So_It_Goes) May 26, 2020
how could we have possibly known he would go this far? asked the folks who stood aside in tacit support as the president mocked a disabled reporter and bragged about pussy grabbing and savaged the parents of a dead soldier
— kilgore trout, potato thief (@KT_So_It_Goes) May 26, 2020
he wants the balls & strikesers to know what happens if they ever try to quit the game and fly straight: he’ll go after dead family of people they once knew in passing
— kilgore trout, potato thief (@KT_So_It_Goes) May 26, 2020
Gonna be that kind of a day again https://t.co/OzULxOLa3U
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 26, 2020
Instead of focusing on the greatest crisis since the Great Depression, how is @realDonaldTrump spending his time?
Sullying the name of a dead woman, over and over, in horrific, conspiratorial tweets.
Have you no decency, sir?https://t.co/usBfUEBWqt
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) May 26, 2020
I wish Mr. Klausutis well in his endeavor; however, even if Twitter agrees to remove the jerk’s posts, those posts likely have been preserved or captured and will be circulated over and over again. Failing that, the original sources of this conspiracy theory (e.g. True Pundit) are still out there and their material can continue to be harvested, tweeted and retweeted by Trump and his fellow conspiracy pushers.
Reporter: "Have you seen the letter that was written by her husband begging Twitter to delete your tweets, talking about how hard it's been for his family, for him?"
President Trump: "Yeah, I have but I'm sure that ultimately they want to get to the bottom of it." pic.twitter.com/wcevZf1Fzt
— The Hill (@thehill) May 26, 2020
"Donald Trump doesn’t merely want to criticize his opponents; he takes a depraved delight in inflicting pain on others, even if there’s collateral damage in the process, as is the case with the Klausutis family. There’s something quite sick about it all."https://t.co/uhDCN9RX3J
— Peter Wehner (@Peter_Wehner) May 26, 2020
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