A pair of conservative commentators complained about online speculation that President Donald Trump might be shuffling off this mortal coil.
The president made no public appearances for days last week, setting off social media speculation over the weekend that the 79-year-old Trump might have died or was possibly suffering from a serious health condition, and a "CNN News Central" host asked conservative commentator Scott Jennings to comment on the conspiracy theories.
"What I'm worried about are people making irresponsible statements and wishcasting about the president's health," Jennings said. "I watched a video yesterday of Tim Walz speaking in front of a group saying, 'Well, we thought we were going to wake up to some great news, but it turns out he's still alive, but don't worry, one of these days we'll wake up to that news.' Now that is the governor of Minnesota, the Democratic candidate for vice president, wishing for, wishcasting the death of the president of the United States."
"I don't care how much you hate your political opponent," Jennings added, "wishing death upon them and joking about it means you're a broken-brained SOB, and that's what he is."
Jennings interviewed the president by phone Tuesday morning, and recordings captured his voice sounding a bit more gravely than usual, but that had seemingly cleared up by the time he made a public appearance later that afternoon in the White House, and conservative columnist S.E. Cupp compared speculation about his health to similar concerns about Joe Biden.
"I want to agree that it's disgusting and gross and leaders, political leaders, should not foment that among the electorate," Cupp said. "Now Donald Trump foments it all the time, okay, so he is not like removed from this conversation, but that doesn't mean that Democrats need to join in – it's gross."
"Putting that aside, it's also really stupid," she added. "Democrats have got to get their heads around the fact that an agenda is going to be the thing that beats Donald Trump. It's not going to be an untimely death. It's not going to be he's not going to hang himself, it's not going to be Epstein. They've got to do the work of coming together with an agenda to compete with his, period, full stop."