A US TV host has furiously rebuked President Donald Trump for falsely suggesting her husband and co-presenter may have got away with murder. (BBC reports)
In tweets, Mr Trump has appeared to link MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough to the death of an aide two decades ago, a conspiracy theory debunked by police.
"Donald, you're a sick person," anchor Mika Brzezinski said on air as she defended her husband.
She also demanded Twitter take down the president's incendiary tweets. "He's once again tweeting conspiracy theories about Joe, falsely accusing him of murder," Ms Brzezinski said on her MSNBC show Morning Joe on Wednesday, before addressing the president directly.
She questioned how the president could subject the family of a congressional aide - who authorities said died of natural causes in Mr Scarborough's office in 2001 - to such "BS".
"Donald, you're a sick person," Ms Brzezinski said. "You're really a cruel, sick, disgusting person."
Background to theories Mr Scarborough is a former Republican congressman who represented a Florida district from 1995 to 2001. In July 2001, a member of his staff, 28-year-old Lori Klausutis, was found dead in the lawmaker's office in Fort Walton Beach.
Mr Scarborough was in Washington DC at the time. Despite the president's suggestion of something untoward in his exit from Congress, Mr Scarborough had stepped down before Klausutis' death.
Authorities determined Klausutis died after losing consciousness from an abnormal heart rhythm, before collapsing and striking her head. She had told a colleague a day earlier that she felt unwell.
Police found no foul play and a medical examiner established Klausutis had suffered an acute subdural hematoma, or blood clot, ruling her death accidental.
After Mr Trump's tweet about the matter on 12 May, Mr Scarborough said live on air: "Why don't you turn off the television, and why don't you start working, OK?"
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