'Please delete these tweets': Trump continues to push baseless Joe Scarborough conspiracy theory after heartbreaking letter from widower

MSNBC morning hosts had a chummy relationship with then-candidate Trump way back in 2016

Donald Trump continued Tuesday morning to push a conspiracy theory that former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough was involved in the murder of a former staffer as he lobbed new insults at the cable morning show how and his co-host wife.

The president for weeks has taken to Twitter to suggest the former Florida House member was responsible for the death of Lori Klausutis, who worked in his Florida office while he was a congressman. The conspiracy theory was first pushed by left-wing opponents of Mr Scarborough, but has been picked up by Mr Trump and many on the right because the MSNBC morning show host is a leading critic of the president.

Mr Trump used tweets over the long Memorial Day holiday weekend and then on Tuesday morning to push the theory again. But he has never provided a shred of evidence to support his claim.

The tweets come after Ms Klausutis's widower pressed Twitter chief Jack Dorsey to delete all posts from the president about his late wife, arguing Mr Trump is pushing a baseless conspiracy theory.

"My request is simple: Please delete these tweets," Timothy J. Klausutis wrote.

"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," Mr Klausutis told Mr Dorsey in the letter, first reported by the New York Times. "My wife deserves better."

The company has yet to publicly respond to Mr Klausutis and the president's tweets remain live on the social media site.

"In 2016 when Joe & his wacky future ex-wife, Mika, would endlessly interview me, I would always be thinking........about whether or not Joe could have done such a horrible thing?" Mr Trump wrote, referring to his previously friendly relationship with Mr Scarborough and his now-wife Mika Brzezinski.

The pair talked to Mr Trump on and off the air frequently during the 2016 presidential election, and even joined him at his Mar a Lago resort before he took office. Once they criticised him on air, however, a nasty feud developed.

Ms Klausutis died in 2001 after hitting her head on a desk after fainting due to an undetected heart condition, local police concluded. The president has never outright accused Mr Scarborough of having committed murder. But he certainly has suggested it over and over.

"Maybe or maybe not" he wrote on Tuesday morning about whether or not Mr Scarborough is guilty.

"But I find Joe to be a total Nut Job, and I knew him well, far better than most. So many unanswered & obvious questions, but I won't bring them up now!" he wrote before appearing to pressure local and state authorities: "Law enforcement eventually will?"

The "Morning Joe" co-hosts addressed the matter on Tuesday morning, perhaps prompting Mr Trump's response.

"I know all too well how much T.J. [Klausutis] has suffered, and how much, he's told me his family has suffered," the former GOP congressman said. "Every time they spread these lies, they're hurting the family."

"What the Klausutises, the entire family have had to endure for 19 years, it's unspeakably cruel," he added. "Whether it's the president or the people following the president, it's unspeakably cruel. These are not public figures."

His wife then chimed in with: "And made worse by Twitter."