Speaking at Iowa’s America First Dinner, President Trump introduced Angel Mom Michelle Root, whose daughter was killed by an illegal immigrant the day after she graduated college with a 4.0 average. Root acknowledged Trump’s efforts to honor Angel Moms and Dada and triggered an ovation by stating, “This man gave us a voice, Angel families a voice. No other president would hear our stories.”
Before he introduced Root, Trump stated, “We want people to come into our country but they have to come in illegally and they have to come in through merit. We want people that can help us … We believe our country should be a sanctuary for law-abiding Americans, not criminal aliens. So we’re joined and honored tonight to be with a very special woman; an Angel Mom, I love Angel Moms; these are great people. Their lives have been so horribly hurt. But Michelle Root is this special woman whose precious beautiful daughter Sarah Root was killed by an illegal alien one day after graduating from college with a 4.0 GPA … That was the highest marks in her class.”
Turning to Root, Trump asked, “Please come up. Please come up. Please come up.”
Root took the stage, then stated:
This man gave us a voice, Angel families a voice. No other president would hear our stories. I was fortunate, if you want to say fortunate, enough to have him in the running to become our president. A lot of other Angel families did not have that voice until he came along. We’ve always had that voice for Sarah— she was killed January 31st 2016 within a day of graduating with a bachelor’s as the president has said; 4.0 in criminal investigations. Her killer was 16 years old when he came across the border, unaccompanied, illegally. He killed my daughter at age 19. He had a blood alcohol of .241. Streetracing, hit the back of my daughter’s SUV that was stopped at a stoplight, going 70-plus miles an hour.
My daughter never had a chance. I do not — and the reason I speak out — I don’t get Sarah back at the end of the day. I speak out because I don’t want this happening to any of you.
Our wonderful president stands by us and does everything in his power to help us because he doesn’t want to see another family have to go through what our family what we’ve gone through. And I thank him for that and I’m proud of him for standing as strong as he has against the opposition he has to face daily.
Turning to Trump, she continued, “I am so proud of you, and so is my family and my son.” Offering Trump a kiss on the cheek, she told him, “Love you.”
After she exited, Trump continued. “Your beautiful girl is looking down and she’s saying, ‘I’m so proud of my mom.” He added, “I’ve gotten to know a lot of Angel Moms and Dads and what they’ve gone through is incredible. It’s for no reason whatsoever.”
Video below:
