Alyssa Farah Griffin Tells Anderson Cooper Story of Matt Gaetz Giving Trump ‘Conspiracy Theories’ Folder About MSNBC Host: ‘Chilling’
CNN’s Anderson Cooper called Matt Gaetz’s nomination for Attorney General “chilling” after Alyssa Farah Griffin recounted Gaetz providing President-elect Donald Trump with a “conspiracy theories” folder about MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.
The View co-host Griffin, who also served as a communications official in Trump’s first administration, shared her one “run-in” with Gaetz during a CNN panel on Wednesday night. According to Griffin, Gaetz handed Trump a folder in the White House that included a conspiracy theory about Scarborough murdering an intern while he served in Congress, and Trump would go on to repeat these false claims on Twitter.
Griffin said:
“If I could just tell you quickly, my really only run-in with Matt Gaetz, I don’t know him personally, was in the outer Oval Office when Donald Trump was president. He was about to walk in and meet with him, he was holding a folder and I said, ‘What‘s in that folder?’ Just so I could see what he was going to give to the president of the United States. It was conspiracy theories about Joe Scarborough murdering his intern. And he presented it to Donald Trump, who then tweeted about it, causing duress to the family of this woman who died tragically, no involvement obviously of Joe Scarborough, but that‘s the character and the judgment of this individual. House Republicans know it, Senate Republicans know it, but will the political will be there?”
“I mean, that’s chilling if that guy is the guy that is going to be running the Department of Justice,” Cooper said.
“Just the stunning lack of judgment, character, and integrity,” Griffin responded.
Trump’s tweets about Scarborough remain up on the platform.
“When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!” he wrote in 2020.
Trump appeared to be referring to Lori Klausutis, who was a staffer for Scarborough’s Fort Walton Beach, Florida office while he was serving in Congress. Klausutis’s autopsy revealed an undiagnosed heart condition. She passed out and hit her head in a fall in 2001, the Associated Press reported. Scarborough was not even in the state at the time. The congressman was in Washington.
Morning Joe’s Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski commented on Gaetz’s nomination and the story of the “conspiracy theories” folder which Griffin previously recounted to the congressional subcommittee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“Twitter never deleted the posts, responding in a statement that the tweets did not violate its terms of service,” Brzezinski said of Trump’s tweets, adding that Klausutis’s widower even asked Twitter to take down the tweets.
“They, of course, changed the terms of service the next day, so…” Scarborough added.
Brzezinski then offered an invitation for any of Trump’s nominees to appear on their show, as well as Trump, saying she looks forward to discussing the issue and others “face to face” with the incoming president.
Watch above via CNN.
