President Obama has yet to offer his condolences to the family of Kathryn Steinle, Jim Steinle testified Thursday before a House panel.
Answering a question from Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) as to whether Obama had expressed condolences to his family since his daughter’s murder — Steinle indicated that he had not.
“I’m very sorry to hear that when there have been other very public deaths in this country like Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin and Freddie Gray the president has expressed his condolences to the family. I would have expected him to do that here,” Ratcliffe responded.
“He did more than express his condolence in those cases, he had a lot of say about those circumstances, I think because they tied into policies he cared about like gun control and alleged police profiling,” he added.
According to Ratcliffe, Obama has likely been silent on this because it was his policies that lead to the tragedy.
“When one of his policies — with respect to immigration enforcement — is at the root of a problem here that we are all discussing today we don’t hear anything from him and you don’t hear anything from him,” the Texas lawmaker said.
“About the kindest thing I can say about that is it is incredibly disheartening and troubling to me because I very much believe that the loss you have experienced is unacceptable if for no other reason than it was entirely preventable had the immigration laws in our country been enforced. And this administration has frankly refused to uphold the law,” Ratcliffe added.
Steinle’s daughter, Kathryn Steinle, was murdered earlier this month, allegedly by a multiple deportee illegal immigrant with a long rap sheet at a San Francisco pier. The illegal immigrant had been released from San Francisco custody less than three months before he shot Steinle due to the city’s sanctuary policies.
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