Kristin Urquiza, whose father died of the coronavirus pandemic in June, pointedly condemned President Donald Trump and accused him of being responsible for his death during a powerful moment of the Democratic National Convention’s first night.
During a short segment, Urquiza directly addressed the screen and introduced herself as “one of the many who has lost a loved one to Covid.” Her father, Mark Anthony Urquiza, she explained, was a Trump voter who believed the president when he dismissed the virus as under control and “going to disappear.”
“That it was going to disappear, that it was okay to end social distancing rules before it was safe and that if you had no underlying health conditions, you’d probably be fine,” she added. “So in late May, after the stay-at-home order was lifted in Arizona, my dad went to a karaoke bar with his friends. A few weeks later, he was put on a ventilator. And after five agonizing days he died alone in the ICU with a nurse holding his hand.”
Urquiza gained national attention after published a scathing obituary in the Arizona Republic in April that accused state and federal officials for failing her father and being complicit in his death.
Mark, like so many others, should not have died from COVID-19. His death is due to the carelessness of the politicians who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies through 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.
“My dad was a healthy 65-year-old. His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump and for that he paid with his life,” Urquiza said, enunciating the last few words of the sentence with clear sadness and anger. “I am not alone. Once I told my story, a lot of people reached out to me to share theirs. They asked me to help them keep their community safe, especially communities of color which have been disproportionately affected. They asked me, a normal person, to help because Donald Trump won’t.”
“The coronavirus has made it clear that there are two Americas: The America that Donald Trump lives in and the America that my father died in,” Urquiza added, further condemning the president. “Enough is enough. Donald Trump may not have caused the coronavirus, but his dishonesty and his irresponsible actions made it so much worse. We need a leader who has a national, coordinated, data-driven response to stop this pandemic from claiming more lives than 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. And so when I
Watch the video above, via MSNBC.