Joe Scarborough responds -- sort of -- after Trump seemingly accuses him of involvement in intern's 2001 death

Joe Scarborough is quite aware of what President Trump tweeted about him Wednesday morning -- but perhaps for his own sanity, he declined not to engage in one of Trump's infamous and oft-occurring Twitter battles.

After the bombshell news broke of Matt Lauer's firing from NBC's "Today" show, it didn't take long for the president to weigh in with a response most are calling inflammatory: "So now that Matt Lauer is gone when will the Fake News practitioners at NBC be terminating the contract of Phil Griffin?" he wrote. "And will they terminate low ratings Joe Scarborough based on the 'unsolved mystery' that took place in Florida years ago? Investigate!"

Trump is referring to the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, a 28-year-old past intern of Scarborough's who died in his Florida office when he was a congressman. Local medical examiner Dr. Michael Berkland determined that Klausutis suffered an abnormal heart rhythm and fell, hitting her head on a desk and losing consciousness.

Scarborough did not directly reply to the president's actual tweet as he told his followers yesterday that he would avoid commenting on Trump's personality, focusing instead only on his policy decisions.

"Looks like I picked a good day to stop responding to Trump's bizarre tweets," Scarborough said. "He is not well."

Among those coming to Scarborough's defense is his brother, George, who emphasized that he's a longtime supporter of the president.

"I need to see a public apology to my brother Joe or else he has lost my support for good," he said. "Which is saying a ton given all the support I’ve shown him in past 2 years."

After some angrily blasted him for applauding the president up until this point, he stood firm, saying he's a Republican who likes Trump's Supreme Court pick, "booming stock mkt, 3%+ GDP growth, low unemployment & other policies" -- but that Trump had simply gone too far with his unfounded attack.

In short, he wrote, it crossed the line "big time": "A bold lie .... about my brother from 20+ years ago that has put a huge emotional drain on my family."