Country-Folk Music Star’s Widow Blames ‘Idiot’ Trump for Husband’s Death

Country-Folk Music Star’s Widow Blames ‘Idiot’ Trump for Husband’s Death.

Fiona Whelan Prine, the widow of country-folk star John Prine, on Tuesday blamed “idiot” President Donald Trump for her husband’s death from the coronavirus.

“Can someone get that f****** idiot off the stage,” Prine’s wife tweeted Tuesday during the first presidential debate. “My husband died on his watch.”

Prine, known for such songs as “Sam Stone,” “Hello in There” and “Angel From Montgomery,” was first hospitalized with the virus in March and was in intensive care at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He died about a month later in April, from COVID-19 complications, at age 73, his family told Rolling Stone. His wife tested positive for the virus on March 17, after she and her husband returned from a tour in Europe, according to the magazine.

The singer-songwriter was the winner of two Grammy Awards and a member of both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

In addition to calling the president an “idiot,” Prine’s wife responded to a Twitter user who criticized her comments, suggesting that her rants “are tainting his legacy.”

“You have not truly listened to his body of work if you think that John had anything but disdain for the modern Republican Party and all they represent,” Prine wrote in response. “Trump is the ultimate manifestation of their self-serving hypocrisy.”

Her comments about Trump came as the president faced off Tuesday night against Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The two candidates argued over a number of wide-ranging topics, including the coronavirus pandemic that has infected more than 7.2 million Americans and caused at least 206,963 deaths.

Fiona Whelan Prine and John Prine attend the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Induction and Awards Dinner on June 13, 2020, in New York City.
During the debate, Trump suggested that his campaign rallies, which have drawn thousands, have “had no negative effect” in terms of the virus, although several campaign staff members testing positive following a June rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A Tulsa health official said that the rally, as well as an accompanying protest, “likely contributed” to a surge in coronavirus cases in the county.

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain was one of those who tested positive following the Tulsa rally and died shortly afterward. But Dan Calabrese, the editor-in-chief of HermanCain.com, said there was no way to trace Cain’s death to his attendance at the campaign rally.

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign and John Prine’s management for comment but did not receive responses in time for publication.