A woman who lost her father to the coronavirus eviscerated President Trump on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, declaring in a pointed speech that her father’s “only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump.”
Kristin Urquiza, whose father Mark died from the coronavirus in June, said in a video message Monday night that her father “paid with his life” by trusting the President’s repeated insistence that the pandemic would go away.
“The coronavirus has made clear that there are two Americas: the America that Donald Trump lives in and the America that my father died in,” Urquiza said. “Enough is enough. Donald Trump may not have caused the coronavirus, but his dishonesty and his irresponsible actions made it so much worse.”
Urquiza’s comments Monday built on an impactful obituary she wrote for her father in July when she slammed the Trump administration for its coronavirus response: “His death is due to the carelessness of the politicians who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies.”
Her father’s passing, Urquiza wrote, was the result of “a clear lack of leadership, refusal to acknowledge the severity of this crisis, and inability and unwillingness to give clear and decisive direction on how to minimize risk.”
Urquiza ended her speech Monday declaring “we need a leader who has a national, coordinated, data-driven response to stop this pandemic from claiming more lives and to safely reopen the country. We need a leader who will step in on day one and do his job, to care.”
“One of the last things that my father said to me was that he felt betrayed by the likes of Donald Trump,” she continued. “And so, when I cast my vote for Joe Biden, I will do it for my dad.”
The coronavirus pandemic has taken more than 200,000 lives in the United States alone in just six months. The pandemic also shows no signs of ending as colleges that tried to have in-person classes are now reversing course.
The Democratic National Convention will continue Tuesday night with speeches from Dr. Jill Biden (Joe Biden’s wife), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), former Secretary of State John Kerry, former President Bill Clinton, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.