'This has got to stop': Mom calls out Trump for using daughter's murder for 'his agenda'

In an interview with Rolling Stone's Asawin Suebsaeng, the mother of a University of Iowa sophomore who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant recalled how Donald Trump used the tragedy as a talking point during a rally on the same day her daughter was laid to rest.

And he couldn't even be bothered to learn and say her name when he spoke to his supporters, she said.

According to Laura Calderwood, the death of her daughter Mollie Tibbetts made national news in 2018 when Trump was halfway through his only term as president and she was stunned at the speed with which Trump latched onto the story without ever even speaking with her.

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As she described it, "No one ever reached out. Nothing.”

That came after she described coming home from her daughter's funeral and, as she was changing out of her mourning clothes, was startled to see Trump at a televised rally on the same day, " declaring that her [Mollie's] death was yet another example of why Americans need to ruthlessly crack down on immigration, and overhaul the laws to Trump’s liking," Suebsaeng wrote.

Pointing out that the now-former president referred to her deceased daughter as "that incredible, beautiful, young woman," Calderwood remembered thinking, "You have got to be kidding me,You didn’t even mention her name. Really? That girl? Everyone else in the country knew her name.… I’m just trying to finish up this day that no parent should ever have to go through, and now you’re on television, bringing her up, and you can’t mention her name? I would have thought he would’ve had handlers who said, ‘This is the name of the girl.’ … I knew he was trying to further his agenda. It wasn’t about Mollie. It was about him.”

With the report noting that Trump continued to use the death of the young woman in subsequent speeches, Calderwood was asked what she would say to Trump as he makes his third bid for the White House.

"Where is your compassion? Where’s your humanity?" she replied, later adding, "This divisiveness and this hatred is something that Mollie would not have stood for. I’m not anti-Republican by any means.… My dad was a Republican. We’d have nice, lively debates. But it is this divisiveness, it is what Donald Trump has turned the party into. And it’s not good. I hear Kamala Harris ask for unity and fresh starts and stuff, but then I see the other side that is just divisive. And I don’t know how we’re going to come together.… I don’t know how we fix the divisiveness. I really don’t. And that’s a scary thought.”

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