The brother of a San Francisco woman killed by an undocumented immigrant said Tuesday that Donald Trump was inappropriately using her without as much as calling the family to express condolences.
“Donald Trump talks about Kate Steinle like he knows her,” Brad Steinle told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday. “I’ve never heard a word from his campaign manager, I’ve never heard a word from him. It’s disconcerting. I don’t want to be affiliated with someone who doesn’t have the common courtesy to reach out and ask about Kate, and our political views and what we want.”
Brad Steinle, the brother of now the now deceased Kate Steinle, the 32-year-old medical device sales representative who was shot and killed as she walked one of the city’s piers. Trump has been using her death as an example reinforcing his comments that undocumented immigrants crossing into the U.S. are “rapists” and “killers.”
The man accused of killing Kate Steinle, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, was allowed to roam San Francisco despite being wanted by federal authorities thanks to San Francisco’s status as a “sanctuary city” that shields some undocumented immigrants from federal authorities.
Asked by Cooper if he felt his sister was being used by Trump, Brad Steinle said, “In a way, yes.”
“Sensationalizing it is not the route we would like to go,” he said. “If you’re going to use somebody’s name and you’re going to sensationalize the death of a beautiful young lady, maybe you should call and talk to the family first and see what their views are.”
Steinle called Trump’s immigration policies — which include building a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, “not rational” and “not common sense.”