Donald Trump launched an odd mixed attack against a Massachusetts mom charged with murdering her three children, calling it “horrible, horrible... can’t be worse,” before adding: “It’s too bad.”
He insisted there will be “consequences.”
The 80-year-old president was responding to a reporter’s question in the Oval Office Friday about former nurse Lindsay Clancy, 36, whose trial on charges of murdering her three young children ended in a mistrial earlier Friday because the jury could not reach a verdict.
The case has focused attention on post-partum psychosis, which was Clancy’s defense. Her attorneys argued that she had desperately tried to get help for the condition, in vain, and that the killings were the result of her overwhelming mental illness linked to childbirth that triggered a break with reality.
She was accused of strangling her children Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan three years ago. A psychologist testified that she said a male voice told her to kill them.
The jury of nine women and three men appeared to be divided 11 to one on the case and could not agree on a verdict.
Trump said he had been following the case on TV. “It’s on television so much, it’s hard not to follow it,” he noted.
Trump also weighed in on the consequences he believes Clancy is bound to face, but again seemed a bit hazy.
“It’s a shame. It’s a horrible tragedy. I see what’s happened,” he insisted. “She did a horrible, horrible thing, can’t be worse, but you’ll find out what the price to pay is. There’ll be a price. It’s going to be mental institution or jail or something, but I guess they’re going to go through another trial,” he said.
Many people responding to the film clip of Trump on X wondered about “consequences” for the president. “Wow,” one noted, “the guy that got himself full immunity sure likes consequences.” One person wondered about “the price” for things like “pedophilia” and for “shaking down people, companies, and countries.”
“That’s just what we need,” posted another. Trump “chiming in on something he doesn’t know anything about.”
Clancy is expected to remain institutionalized as prosecutors consider whether to retry the case. Trump told reporters he “assumes” there will be another trial.
