Ex-President Donald Trump raised the murder of a woman shot to death by a romantic partner who was a previously deported migrant – but got her age wrong.
Speaking from Grand Rapids, Trump mentioned 25-year-old Michigan woman Ruby Garcia, who authorities say was killed by Mexican national Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 25.
‘On March 22nd, he shot 17-year-old Ruby. Actually, she was a beautiful, beautiful, young woman,’ said Trump on Tuesday afternoon. ‘Ruby Garcia was shot multiple times.’
Trump had his eyes on prepared remarks on a podium while uttering the error.
It was not clear who prepared the talking points for Trump and if he read from them verbatim.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Metro.co.uk on Tuesday evening.
Trump during the rally in the battleground state called Ortiz-Vite an ‘illegal alien criminal’ and blamed ‘politicians that are left and weak and stupid’.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement deported Ortiz-Vite following a judge’s order in September 2020 and he re-entered the US on an unknown date.
‘We threw him out of the country and crooked Joe Biden took them back and let him back in and let him stay in, and he viciously killed Ruby – the illegal alien charged with Ruby’s really heinous killing,’ said Trump.
‘This is somebody that had many, many arrests, including for some very bad crimes that he committed that he was set loose to roam our streets.’
Trump used Garcia’s murder as an example of migrant crime he claimed would continue if Biden is re-elected president. Trump stood behind a sign on his podium that read, ‘Stop Biden’s border bloodbath’.
‘We’re going to deliver justice for Ruby,’ Trump said, with law enforcement officers standing behind him.
Biden’s aides and Democrats and say Trump is trying to capitalize politically on Garcia’s slaying.
‘Donald Trump already tried to overturn one election and promised a “bloodbath” if he loses this November,’ the Biden campaign’s rapid response director, Ammar Moussa, told USA Today.
‘Now Trump is doubling down, embracing political violence and making it clear to anyone watching that he is a threat to our democracy and our Constitution.’
In his speech, Trump said that Garcia had the ‘most contagious laughter and when she walked into a room, she lit up that room’.
‘I’ve heard that from so many people,’ Trump said. ‘I spoke to some of her family.’
But Garcia’s sister, Mavi, told FOX 17, ‘No, he did not speak with us’, and declined to comment on Trump’s visit.
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