DNC Speaker Blames Trump For Her Father's COVID Death

Kristin Urquiza says her dad was “a healthy 65-year-old” who died of COVID after believing President Trump’s rhetoric about the virus

During last night’s first set of speakers for the (virtual) Democratic National Convention, a woman gave an impassioned speech about losing her father to COVID-19. She didn’t mince words when it comes to who she blames for his death — President Donald Trump.

Kristin Urquiza lost her father, Mark Urquiza, on June 30th after a weeks-long battle with COVID-19. “I’m one of the many who have lost a loved one to Covid,” she said. “My dad, Mark Anthony Urquiza, should be here today, but he isn’t.”

“My dad was a healthy 65-year-old,” Urquiza said. “His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that, he paid with his life.”

“He had faith in Donald Trump,” she said. “He voted for him, listened to him, believed him and his mouthpieces when they said that coronavirus was under control and 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.”

Urquiza explained that because of her father’s confidence in Trump, he felt comfortable going to a karaoke bar in late May after Arizona’s stay-at-home order was lifted. “A few weeks later, he was put on a ventilator,” she said. “And after five agonizing days, he died alone in the ICU with a nurse holding his hand.”

Urquiza wrote her dad’s obituary after he passed and it went viral for its unflinching words with Urquiza making clear that her father would likely still be here today had he not bought into politicians’ dangerous rhetoric about the virus not being a threat.

“Mark, like so many others, should not have died from COVID-19,” she wrote in the obituary. “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 the risk.”

Urquiza says that before her father died, one of the last things he said to her was that he felt betrayed by Trump and that her vote for Biden would be with her late father in mind.

“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. Enough is enough,” she pleads. “Donald Trump may not have caused the coronavirus, but his dishonesty and his irresponsible actions made it so much worse.”